Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-05-Speech-2-279"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020205.13.2-279"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Ladies and gentlemen, the first thing we must bear in mind at the outset of this evening’s useful and necessary debate on the monitoring of the BSE crisis is the confusion, the distress, the suffering and the fury of farmers, whose possibilities, prices and morale have all been struck by a veritable earthquake that has shaken their world, ruined years of work on breeding and good practices and has caused them to be distrusted by consumers, which they feel is particularly unfair.
We are concerned to see that, in many farming regions, as you know, Madam President, large numbers of still young farmers are leaving the business because, unable to put up with the consequences of a crisis for which they are not responsible any longer, they are forced to stop farming. In some cases, their despair leads them to take violent action, even to commit suicide.
The Commission, which reacted so badly and so slowly to the outbreak of this crisis, first by denying it and then by playing down its severity, appears today, probably to get itself off the hook, to be prolonging the matter by imposing whole ranges of measures which do nothing to allay consumers’ concerns; they risk destabilising the markets and increase the costs of making changes to the industry, whilst at the same time proving itself to be more generous in laying down regulations than in providing money. The European testing programme for scrapie enters into force this month. Is this good timing when each test costs as much as a sheep’s carcase and cannot currently distinguish between the prion which causes scrapie, which is harmless to humans, and the prion that causes BSE, which can be transmitted to humans? Furthermore, Argentinian meat imports have started up again. Is this really the right time, when some parts of Argentina remain infected with foot-and-mouth disease? Incidentally, the special purchases programme, set up by the Commission is about to be abolished, on 31 March, and according to Agenda 2000, the intervention mechanism for beef and veal is due to end on 30 June 2002.
I call on the Commission to state unequivocally that these deadlines will be put back, because going ahead with these blows to the beef and veal industry would be like cutting off the oxygen to an injured person who is being resuscitated. Instead, we feel that at a time when the BSE epidemic is at very different stages in the various Member States, it is the vigilance of the States themselves that provides the bests results. In the United Kingdom, where the disease originated and which has had 99% of all clinical cases, the measures, which admittedly took a long time to be adopted and an even longer time to be properly implemented, are now bearing fruit. The number of BSE cases has steadily fallen by 40% per year to reach fewer than 1000 cases last year, whereas in 1992, there were 36 000. In France, where the epidemic is more recent and where systematic screening over the last eighteen months seemed to initially increase the number of cases, there has been a slight decrease since the end of 2000. The other countries affected have a lower rate of prevalence and also appear to be in control of the situation. As you are aware, it is now Japan’s turn to be infected by the epizooty that we have experienced.
In Europe, we must now, therefore, allow the authorities of the Member States to get on with their work so that farmers can regain the total confidence of consumers, whilst, within the Union, resolutely making the necessary efforts to provide real traceability. Consequently, with regard to France’s maintaining its ban on British animals and meats, the European Court in Luxembourg – the judgment should be read in its entirety – has acknowledged that the ban was largely justified due to the still insufficiently reliable traceability within the industry in the United Kingdom. It is also crucial to effectively implement, by means of systematic and rigorous inspections, the same quality and safety requirements, in order to provide consumers with the same guarantees for meats imported from third countries as for Community meats.
Item 25 of the draft resolution that has been presented to us makes a timely insistence on the importance of this issue by emphasising the Commission’s responsibility to “ensure that the same safeguards are applied with regard to imports from third countries as apply to Community products, in particular as regards BSE testing, the temporary ban on feeding meat-and-bone meal and the proper removal of specific risk material.” Furthermore, the Commission should also inform us, as well as the Member States, of the results of its inspections. To sum up, Madam President, consumer confidence, which is crucial if our farmers are going to find new hope, will only fully return when they see that in the European Union, public health protection comes before the dogma of free trade."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples