WRITTEN QUESTION E-1166/00 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. White Paper on Food Safety and the European Food Authority.
C 89 E/12 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 20. 3. 2001 (2001/C 89 E/010) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1111/00 by Pernille Frahm (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (11 April 2000) Subject: Advertising campaign for Spanish oranges In the light of a survey published by the Danish organisation Grłn Informationí showing that Spanish oranges have an alarmingly high content of poisonous spray residues, will the Commission state why it has chosen to grant EU funding to advertise such oranges and, if the above information from Grłn Informationí is correct, whether it intends to withdraw its support for the advertising campaign? Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (16 June 2000) The Commission would remind the Honourable Member that the campaign to promote citrus fruit of Community origin is governed by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1201/90 of 7 May 1990 on measures to increase the consumption of citrus fruit (1), which inter alia deems fruit and vegetables to be healthy products whose consumption should be encouraged as part of a healthy and balanced diet. Article 2 stipulates that the measures provided for in the Regulation must not refer to any Member State. The purpose of the campaign is therefore to promote consumption of citrus fruit harvested in the Community. Since it is not aware of surveys which reveal that oranges originating from one of its regions have a high pesticide content, the Commission would ask the Honourable Member to send it all reliable information on this matter. The Commission would also emphasise that oranges marketed in the Community are required to comply with the Community rules on pesticide residues. The Danish authorities are responsible for ensuring compliance with those rules on Danish territory. The Community early warning system for foodstuffs enables the Commission and the Member States to exchange information quickly when high levels of pesticides or other contaminants are detected in food. Over the past six months the Commission has not received any notification from Denmark regarding pesticides in Spanish oranges. (1) OJ L 119, 11. 5. 1990. (2001/C 89 E/011) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1166/00 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission (12 April 2000) Subject: White Paper on Food Safety and the European Food Authority The White Paper on Food Safety (COM(1999) 719 final) was published in January 2000. Chapter 4 is concerned with establishing a European Food Authority (EFA). Chapter 5 considers legislation on food safety. The EU requirements on food safety are also applicable to products exported to third countries (Section 112). The Commission is to investigate whether rules are needed for export certification. Will the Commission include this approach in the framework EU food law? If not, why not, given the major impact it has on food production and exports? If so, to what extent will the obligation of reciprocity be included and made compulsory in respect of third countries? 20. 3. 2001 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 89 E/13 Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission (15 June 2000) As the biggest importer and exporter of food products in the world the Community must regard food safety as an issue that goes beyond internal policy. The Community expects and requires products from third countries to comply with its health requirements. Similarly, appropriate health guarantees should be given for exports, as reflected in the white paper on food safety. In this context it should also be taken into account that import conditions are set by importers, not by exporters. However, exporters can set certain minimum conditions that they will respect. The Community has not thus far fixed export requirements as regards food safety different from the provisions applied for the internal market. The possible benefits of fixing specific rules for Community exports as regards food safety and other sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) questions will be considered in the context of the Community food law. At present Community producers are required to comply with the requirements laid down in Council Directive of 14 June 1993 93/43/EC on the hygiene of foodstuffs (1). Moreover, Article 3 of Council Directive 89/397/EC of 14 June 1989 on the official control of food- stuffs (2) requires Member States not to exclude a product from appropriate control on the grounds that it is intended for export outside the Community. As regards the establishment of health requirements for food exports, the Communityís external obliga- tions will need to be considered, notably the World trade organisation (WTO) SPS agreement provisions governing the establishment of import conditions and the concept of the appropriate level of protection. The Community is playing an active role in the WTO framework to ensure the right of Member States to establish and maintain high public health standards for food safety. The principle of mutual recognition as regards health requirements is addressed in the scope of the bilateral veterinary equivalence agreements of which the Community has concluded three so far. (1) OJ L 175, 19. 7. 1993. (2) OJ L 186, 30. 6. 1989. (2001/C 89 E/012) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1187/00 by Monica Frassoni (Verts/ALE) to the Commission Subject: Archaeological site at Tuvixeddu (Cagliari, Italy) (12 April 2000) itinerariesí On 25 August 1998 the town council of Cagliari issued a call to tender for projects to create áinter- regional Phoenician cultural in the necropolis of Tuvixeddu in the context of the relevant Community programme, which itself comes under the operational programme for the development and enhancement of sustainable tourism in the Objective 1 regions ü measure number 3 ü for the years 1994-1999, covering the completion of the first section (6,8 hectares) of the archaeological park of Tuvixeddu. It is being financed with a total of LIT 7 billion in the form of Community and local authority funding (Departmental Decree on Tourism issued by the Prime Minister on 30 April 1998). The contract was apparently awarded long since, but work has not yet started. Tuvixeddu is the most important Punic- Roman and medieval burial site (more than 1 110 tombs) in the Mediterranean area, protected as part of the archaeological and natural heritage under legislative decree No 490/1999, but it has taken years of lobbying and legal action on the part of local cultural and environmental organisations (mainly Friends of the Earth and the Legal Intervention Group) to induce the Italian authorities to start to make plans for an archaeological park. The site is almost exclusively private property and the estate agency Iniziative (consisting of housing, offices and services Coimpresa intends to build a new urban development