Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-03-Speech-3-049"
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"en.19991103.5.3-049"2
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"Yes, as I said earlier, I am in favour of the establishment of a European food safety authority and the work is on-going in my service in relation to this. I have had a number of discussions with colleagues and with Members of Parliament also in relation to this on an informal basis. So work is proceeding on this issue. No final decisions of course have been taken and, as I said to you a moment ago, the constitutional structure of that authority has yet to be decided and how it would interact with the other institutions of the European Union and with the national food safety agencies of Member States. It also has to be carefully choreographed because we want to rule out any difficulties like the ones we are faced with at the moment.
However, we have to be careful about, as you say, the removal of Member States’ inalienable rights because any interference with the Member States’ rights may very well encroach upon the rights of Member States’, thereby requiring Treaty changes. I am not sure that we want at this stage to move quite that far. I am not ruling that out, but I want you to understand that in addressing your question in that way you should be aware that for progress to be made in that particular area, if it is intended to reduce the jurisdiction or the rights of Member States, Treaty changes would be necessary.
Let me just finally address the issue of the precautionary principle you mentioned. I have mentioned the precautionary principle in the context of imports from the United States and I am sure you are referring to beef and hormone-treated beef. I have referred to that in this House and I have referred to that in the Environment Committee on a number of occasions. I have to point out to you that the advice that I am receiving from the scientists in the European Commission is that the beef imported from the United States contains the hormone 17-beta-oestradiol. I am advised that is a complete carcinogen. In those circumstances, it is appropriate to apply the scientific evidence rather than the precautionary principle because with clear scientific evidence, it is open to me and the Commission to make a decision based on that scientific evidence. It is only in the absence of scientific evidence, or where there is a clear uncertainty in relation to scientific evidence, that the precautionary principle comes into play. So that is why we do not apply the precautionary principle to the hormone issue on the importation of beef from the United States."@en1
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