Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-07-Speech-2-034-000"
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"en.20110607.6.2-034-000"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, the health dimension of the crisis resulting from this outbreak of EHEC bacteria is absolutely tragic. The situation is serious. There is an urgent need to get help to those affected and to take all possible steps to prevent the further spread of this infection. All necessary resources must be made available to our research institutes and hospitals.
Rapid action has been the order of the day since this pathogen emerged. However, the uniform, Europe-wide crisis management right down to a common language regime has not been characterised by professionalism. The pathological hunt to locate the contamination site led to premature accusations of guilt all round, and these arguments led to days of negative headlines and total uncertainty on the part of consumers.
For the producers affected, this gave rise to dramatic losses of income that threatened their very survival. Blameless, regionally-produced products, too, are no longer selling. In Austria alone, sales of fresh vegetables have fallen by 75%. Growers of vegetables are being faced with these losses of income right in the middle of their peak harvesting season. The uncoordinated way in which consumers have received information in the course of this event once again raises the demand for universal and cross-sector origin marking and efficient monitoring on the principle of ‘marked and checked at source’.
Consumers have the right to know where products come from. This applies equally to shop shelves and to restaurants and catering.
All the authorities now need to quickly eliminate the prejudices against fresh vegetables, re-invigorate sales of fresh vegetables and breathe new life into trade with third countries. The EHEC situation has thrust local vegetable growers into an existential crisis completely out of the blue and through no fault of their own. The Commission must make it possible for there to be compensation for losses, be it through a European agricultural fund, the European crisis fund or measures to promote sales.
Mr Liese is absolutely right to say that human life is irreplaceable and that every death is one death too many. However, it is also absolutely our duty not to leave our producers high and dry when it is through no fault of their own that they have found themselves in this situation that threatens their very survival."@en1
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