Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-15-Speech-2-117"

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"Mr President, Commissioner, does regulating additives in feedingstuffs come under competition or consumer policy? As far the Commission and the Legal Affairs Committee are concerned, it comes under competition. Of course we have to take account of the competitiveness of the feedingstuffs industry by harmonising provisions for substances authorised before and after 1988. We want to prevent the prices of feedingstuffs from rising and Mr Doyle’s proposed Amendments Nos 4 and 5 therefore deserve our support. However, as Mr Graefe zu Baringdorf has said in his report, this is first and foremost a consumer policy matter. Food safety must take absolute priority over feedingstuffs in all our discussions. When we talk of transparency in the food chain, that applies from the hayfork to the table fork and consumer protection therefore logically starts with feedingstuffs. The antibiotics, growth promoters and genetically-modified organisms mixed in with feedingstuffs end up in the human food chain. The dioxin scandal brought home to us that we have to get out of this mess once and for all and regulating additives in feedingstuffs is a step in the right direction. According to Article 152 of the EC Treaty, we are obliged to obviate sources of danger to human health, whereby the accent is clearly on sources. Consequently, we must cut off the supply of the original source of danger, i.e. harmful additives in feedingstuffs. Otherwise, in my view, we are beavering away at the symptoms, but not the causes. People are especially wary of GMOs. We must confront increasing public awareness of GMOs by regulating their use in feedingstuffs accordingly. First, if an additive consists of or contains genetically-modified organisms, then it should only be authorised if it poses no risk to human health or the environment. Secondly, it makes sense to issue provisions for genetically-modified feedingstuff additives similar to the regulations in seed marketing legislation, as the rapporteur has said. And thirdly, if we are to have a transparent consumer policy, we need to label genetically-modified feedingstuffs. A clear declaration on feedingstuffs will allow double freedom of choice, both for the party using the feedingstuff and the subsequent consumer. Responsible citizens should, in my view, have a choice. We all talk of scandalised citizens who have lost confidence in food safety. By regulating additives in feedingstuffs consistently, we can help significantly to restore confidence. I too, therefore, can hardly wait to hear what you have to say to our proposed amendments. Consequently, we too shall also vote to reserve our right to refer the proposal back to committee if need be."@en1

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