Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-25-Speech-3-492"
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"en.20091125.28.3-492"2
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"Madam President, may I remind the honourable Members that what I said was not that we cannot impose rules on third countries. I am sorry that, even after a presentation of 10 to 15 minutes, I failed to explain the rules we impose when we import from third countries.
I must remind you that at the same time as we are importers of meat from third countries – and at this point we import from Brazil only 5% of our requirements for beef in the European Union – we are also big exporters to third countries: to Russia and elsewhere. At this point, our exports to Russia amount to EUR 1 billion per year – mostly from Ireland. We are trying to convince Russia that we cannot accept the same rules as applied in Russia. There are rules of international trade, and we apply equivalent, but not identical, rules provided that we are satisfied that they are strict enough to protect our consumers.
This is what we are doing. The reason why we applied the safety rules in the case of Brazil is precisely because our FVO missions have shown us that something was going wrong. We applied very strict rules. I gave you the figures.
Regarding the last mission to Brazil, there were indeed problems, but I challenge you to look at all the reports of our FVO missions to any of the Member States and make a comparison. You will also see very serious deficiencies in the Member States, which we ask Member States and their authorities to put right. That is also what we have asked Brazil to do.
Problems were identified in Brazil. In one state, where three holdings showed significant deficiencies, the Brazilian authorities took corrective action to de-list all the holdings concerned and to retrain the auditors responsible for their audits.
Problems were also identified at three other holdings, mainly in relation to delays of notification of animal movements or to the consistency of the data in the database. These problems were recognised to be minor problems by the FVO Team. Nevertheless, the Brazilian authorities made an undertaking to review the database to avoid incorrect data.
The FVO missions have this in mind when they go. They know that they will find defects. Our obligation is to correct the deficiencies that we find – whether this is in Member States or in third countries – because our obligation is to our consumers. I want to assure you that we shall continue sending missions to Brazil and to other third countries to make sure that when deficiencies are discovered, they are put right. I must also assure you that we are playing a very fair game for our farmers and producers vis-à-vis third countries.
There was a remark about Romania, which in the same way as Bulgaria and – in the past – many other Member States, had a problem with classical swine fever. We have heard a lot about Romania and Bulgaria. I must challenge you to ask your respective governments what assistance we have offered in order to get rid of this problem. I am sure that Romania will be able to export meat in the very near future precisely because of the assistance we have offered it and Bulgaria to get rid of classical swine fever.
In ending I want to assure you that our first responsibility is to our European consumers and that we want a just and fair deal for everybody. You can also be assured that our FVO missions to third countries will be very strict. We shall remain vigilant and if something goes wrong, we shall try to put it right. We shall remain vigilant and strict. Whether more farms are put on the list or not depends entirely on the Brazilian authorities, and on whether they are prepared to spend the money that they have to spend in order to have their farms approved in accordance with our standards and to be able to export. If they do not, then they will not."@en1
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