Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-15-Speech-3-214"
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"en.19991215.9.3-214"2
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"Madam President, first of all, I would take exception to the previous speaker who wrongly quoted Thomas Aquinas, but this is just by the by. We are now in the middle of a crisis which has been going on for eighteen weeks and a beef conflict between France and the United Kingdom which, as I have noticed, has taken on a suspect nationalist dimension. It appears that we still to this day battle out national conflicts by means of soccer and beef. Especially the latter aspect is very detrimental as this is on the back of farmers and consumers. This is simply not acceptable.
The second point which becomes clear is that Member States appear to be unable to handle this sort of issue. It is completely clear why this is the case because we have one internal market, we have an open market. If we do not solve this type of conflict at Community level, then this sort of problem will emerge.
When Mr Prodi made his declaration here, he said that a food safety bureau should be set up at the earliest convenience. I would like to find out from Commissioner Byrne when this will eventually happen so that we have a powerful and independent bureau in the European Union which can actually take action and which can adopt powers from national Member States.
The second point which has struck me in this whole political debate is that, first of all, a solution is being sought between two key Member States and that maybe after that, the Commission will be able to have some input. I find this a dangerous tendency in EU politics. It is not acceptable that key Member States are increasingly solving problems amongst themselves. I also say this as a representative of a smaller Member State.
We have opted for a common market, for a common approach and there is no room for a culture in which major Member States thrash out issues amongst themselves. In this respect, I am concerned about the Commission’s position and I would like to know where the European Commission stands and if it is actually able and prepared to take the lead in conflicts like this. Once again, however, in Europe, we live in an era in which food in Europe has probably never been safer and the consumer’s confidence in food is actually diminishing by the day, not only in France and Germany but also in other countries, because this discussion is dragging on due to a lack of political decisiveness. In this light, I would like to know exactly what the Commission is going to do about establishing a food safety bureau on a European scale which is independent and has far-reaching powers."@en1
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