Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-17-Speech-3-105"
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"en.20000517.6.3-105"2
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"The problem under discussion this morning was first identified a long time ago. It is all very laudable to attempt to prevent the risks of BSE at Community level today, but it was almost 15 years ago that our researchers clearly established that one of the causes of mad cow disease was the consumption of cattle fodder containing animal-based meal made from ingredients taken from the carcasses of sheep suffering from ovine scrapie.
This is why, when we contributed towards setting up the Parliament’s Temporary Committee of Inquiry into BSE, we pointed out most forcefully that any regulatory instrument should necessarily cover all transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Why has it been necessary to wait so long to effect the necessary changes in the regulations? Why is there this time lag between scientific discoveries and Community proposals?
Fortunately, as far as the protection of the citizens is concerned, reactions at national level and in a number of Member States were rather more rapid and effective, compared with the incredible slowness and the usual paradoxes of Community bureaucracy. Let me remind you that some countries, in effect, in order to ensure consumer food safety, have had to deliberately contravene Community regulations.
It is a perfectly good idea to make the use of rapid diagnostic tests more widespread. They will be a significant component of BSE monitoring at Community level. Let us not, however, treat them like a universal panacea. These tests can only detect the affected prion protein above a certain level. They are therefore no substitute for, in particular, the withdrawal of specific high-risk materials.
Above all, it would be an outrage if Member States which have set up a screening programme based on tests far stricter than the Community programme were to be penalised, in terms of classification with regard to BSE-related risks, in comparison with States which have confined themselves to the minimum Community programme. Community regulations should never represent a brake on, or obstacle to, the action of Member States that wish to offer their citizens more stringent protection. It has been clear since the start of the BSE crisis that the most appropriate and effective level of protection for our citizens is directly linked to the vigilance of the national authorities, with Community procedures, when they finally come to be drawn up, being able, of course, to play a useful complementary role."@en1
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