Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-05-Speech-2-274"
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"en.20020205.13.2-274"2
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"Madam President, I shall try to be brief, but I should like to say to the rapporteur, Mr Olsson, that this report comes at a time when we have the impression that we have reached a standstill in the BSE crisis. The Member States have, on several occasions, shown how hard they are finding it to manage this crisis. The European Union must not, therefore, shirk its responsibilities in this matter, particularly with the prospect of the forthcoming enlargement.
It is crucial, today, to better coordinate everyone’s efforts to put an end to this epidemic and to prevent further crises arising in the future. Our objective is food safety. We will only be able to achieve this objective by means of better coordination of the policies implemented in each State, and through greater harmonisation of screening procedures and of the fight against the disease.
My group, however, is divided over the measures to be adopted in this field, although I personally fully support the report by Mr Olsson. On the whole, my colleagues fully support these measures, which must enable us to achieve the objective of food safety. The differences of opinion concern the approaches to be taken. This is something I regret, because this obligation to public health must not allow us to relax the rigour to which we have subscribed under the precautionary principle. The aim is not to pit farmers and environmentalists or farmers and health specialists against one another. Farmers want to produce and to be able to guarantee the quality of their products; environmentalists, like those responsible for public health, want to contribute to a sustainable development, but everyone’s objectives are, in fact, the same.
Therefore, this obligation to public health does not allow any relaxation of rigour in terms of implementing the precautionary principle and the principle of zero tolerance, respecting the ban on feeding animals with animal meal, and the destruction of existing stocks of such meal. I can see that our British colleagues are having a hard time and that they would like to find alternatives to destroying the entire national herd, but none of this should allow us to relax the rigor that we want to see in this monitoring of the BSE crisis.
I should like to conclude, Madam President, by reminding you that, in this field, it is crucial that the Commission is able to put a number of sanctions in place and that it ensures that the necessary inspections are made by the Food and Veterinary Office. Community legislation must be implemented more systematically and must be implemented in all the Member States in the same way. Sanctions must be followed up and we must be able to guarantee consumers the highest level of safety in order to restore the public’s confidence in their farmers and in their political leaders."@en1
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