Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-09-Speech-2-013"
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"en.20040309.2.2-013"2
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"Mr President, I am speaking this morning on behalf of my colleague Mr Schnellhardt, who unfortunately cannot be with us. The regulation on feed and food controls before us is one of the EU measures to improve food safety. There is a common thread running through all the arrangements in this area, and that thread is the principle of universal controls, from the farm to the shop counter to the table. The participation of stakeholders in the food sector in food safety has been extended, responsibility has been clearly defined, and official controls have been shaped on a more scientific basis and clearly structured. This regulation on feed and food controls represents a piece of framework legislation in this context.
It has to be said, unfortunately, that the treatment given to this regulation in this House is not in line with the usual parliamentary procedures. The text to be voted on today was largely worked out in the European Council and is significantly different from the Commission proposal. It has not been possible to consider and discuss the text before us in depth. We in this House have been endeavouring for years to extend our powers in relation to the legislative process. The procedure adopted for this regulation runs very much counter to those attempts.
Although we welcome the inclusion of animal welfare in this regulation, we are critical of the nature of the provisions relating to it. The regulation very much opens up the way to transferring certain official control activities to third parties. I believe, however, that official control activities, if their independence is to be ensured, should be engaged in by state institutions.
The same applies to the proposed financing procedure. The proposal will of course provide a uniform basis for calculating the fees for inspections in Europe, but it does nothing to eliminate the distortion in competition resulting from enormous differences in the level of fees, something that has been criticised for years. Just the opposite, in fact: this approach makes it quite possible that companies in the same administrative district will have to pay different fees because of their different geographical distance from the administrative authorities. Yet official controls are intended to promote health and should therefore be charged at approximately the same level for all companies involved.
The inadequate reference to national control plans and to the financing of ad hoc controls means that this procedural approach exposes companies to financial risk.
Lastly, I would like to specifically emphasise that we support many of the ideas put forward here. However, the unconventional way of producing the legislative text that has been imposed upon us, with new drafts repeatedly being published at short intervals, and with the final version of the amendments only becoming available in our own languages this morning, has unfortunately made in-depth consideration of the text impossible. It cannot be ruled out that possible shortcomings and critical points will go unnoticed because of this haste. For this reason, our unreserved support cannot be taken for granted."@en1
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