Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-15-Speech-3-191"
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"en.20001115.9.3-191"2
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"Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, I would like to take this opportunity to denounce the scandalous eviction from this Chamber of our colleague, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who would have been able to remind us that the group representing the European right-wing parties was the first, by a long chalk, to reveal to this House, in September 1990, that the pathogenic agent for BSE was able to jump species and to spread to humans. What were the reactions at the time? Nothing but sarcastic comments and criticisms came from these benches and from the political class while the media maintained a scornful silence.
Back then, Mr President-in-Office, you did virtually nothing, just as your colleagues have done virtually nothing about the fallout from Chernobyl, the AIDS epidemic or contaminated blood, and always for the same reason: so as not to panic public opinion. The former Commissioner, Mr MacSharry, justified this criminal silence by claiming that the beef sector must not be put at risk and that consumers must not be panicked. Now, we are faced with a health and economic catastrophe of unparalleled proportions causing widespread panic amongst consumers.
In the face of predictable reactions from the public, you hastily pronounce a ban on animal meal for all animals, in line with the infamous precautionary principle. Despite the opinion of experts and scientists, who had shown that these MBMs were behind the development and transmission of the pathogenic agent for BSE, you forget to mention in your analysis that the situation is first and foremost due to Anglo-Saxon meal producers who, for commercial reasons, lowered the cooking temperature for MBMs.
Mr President-in-Office, you also fail to mention that France continued to import possibly contaminated MBMs from the UK after 1989, the year in which they were banned, especially via Belgium. The result is a reflection of the impotence of the political class. There have been almost a hundred cases of BSE in France in 2000 and, so far, 80 people have died from variant CJD in the UK and two in France.
Minister, Commissioner, why has it been necessary to wait until 1 October 2000 before banning the specified risk materials in the European Union, even though they are highly infectious? Why wait until 1 January 2001 before bringing in the rapid screening tests which Mr Pasqua mentioned just now? And what about the labelling and traceability system, which will not be complete until 2003, despite the risks for consumers and the absence of a total guarantee for livestock producers?
Now, in a panic, you resign yourselves to action. But, faced with the crisis, it is necessary to guarantee health and food protection for consumers and an income for livestock producers, butchers, tripe butchers and wholesalers alike, all of whom are victims of the negligence of the public authorities, at both national and Community level. These people are in no way responsible for the crisis, which is why the European Union must show solidarity with them.
We must condemn those who are really responsible for the crisis – the Anglo-American producers of MBMs – and we must, if necessary, prosecute them if they were aware of the dangers they were causing. We must acknowledge the special responsibility of the Commission, as called for by the committee of enquiry of this Parliament. There are four real causes of this situation: unchecked profiteering; the violation of natural laws which hoped to turn herbivores into carnivores; the watering down of responsibilities, by transferring sovereignty from nation states to the Brussels eurocracy and finally, your policy of untrammelled free-trade. These are the real causes of the crisis, and it is only by tackling these causes that you will be able to permanently solve this appalling problem, which you helped to create."@en1
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