WRITTEN QUESTION E-1159/00 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. White Paper on Food Safety and the European Food Authority.
C 72 E/20 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 6. 3. 2001 Member States are responsible for the day-to-day enforcement of Community legislation. Commission experts, however, carry out periodic on-the-spot checks to ensure uniform application of the Directive and that the authorities of the Member States are monitoring compliance with the requirements of this Directive. The approval of improper route plans by the authorities and the use of vehicles which fail to comply with Council Regulation (EC) No 411/98 of 16 February 1998 on additional animal protection standards applicable to road vehicles used for the carriage of livestock on journeys exceeding eight hours (3) are infringements which have been reported by inspection missions of the food and veterinary office (FVO) of the Commission. Infringement proceedings in relation to the protection of animals during transport have been opened against Greece and others are being prepared in relation to some other Member States. In the meantime, the Commission has recently taken several additional steps to improve various aspects of the protection of animals during transport. Article 13 of Council Directive 91/628/EEC as amended by Council Directive 95/29/EC provides for the Commission to submit a report to the Council on the experience acquired by the Member States since the implementation of the Directive, possibly accompanied by proposals. The report will be presented to the Council before June 2000 taking into account all available information and in particular the findings of the FVO missions which the Honourable Member mentioned. The Commission will put forward proposals to amend current legislation to ensure better enforcement in the light of the conclusions of the above- mentioned report. (1) OJ L 340, 11. 12. 1991. (2) OJ L 148, 30. 6. 1995. (3) OJ L 52, 21. 2. 1998. (2001/C 72 E/023) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1159/00 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission (11 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. Labelling has become a trade policy issue in many different fields including food safety. The Commission is seeking multilateral guidelines on labelling (section 99). It makes sense to use the same labelling rules for imported products as for products produced in the EU. Will the Commission seek to ensure that multilateral labelling guidelines are at least equivalent to EU rules? If so, has any action already been taken on these lines in an international context? If not, why is the labelling guidelines of equivalent value and what alternatives are Commission opposed to multilateral available to the Commission for applying the same labelling rules to imported food as to food produced in the EU? Answer given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission (16 June 2000) The policy of the Commission is that compulsory labelling should be applied equally to both Community products and imports from third countries. Current Community legislation on food labelling already sets general and specific rules applicable to both Community and imported products. To date, these requirements have not been challenged. Nevertheless, there are important factors which should be taken into account in the context of international trade. 6. 3. 2001 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 72 E/21 Labelling is a broad term which may have several objectives. These include consumer information about contents, methods of production and ingredients, and warnings about certain potential health risks (eg possible presence of allergens). Labelling is covered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) sanitary and phytosanitary agreement where it is related directly to food safety. Otherwise it is covered by the WTO agreement on technical barriers to trade (TBT), or even by the General agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT). The TBT agreement seeks to ensure that technical measures do not impede international trade. Trade-restrictive measures are allowed only if they are aiming at some legitimate objective. Consumer information is not explicitly mentioned in the TBT list so far, but health concerns and prevention of deceptive practices are explicitly mentioned. This does not mean that consumer information could not be considered as a legitimate objective under the TBT agreement because firstly the agreement authorizes labelling when it is used to prevent deceptive practices, and, secondly, because this list of legitimate objectives is not exhaustive. The Commission wishes to see multilateral discussions with view to obtaining international agreement on these issues. The Codex Alimentarius has established general and specific standards for some categories of products. The Commission takes part in the Codex meetings and, together with the Member States, will continue to use its best endeavours to obtain agreement which meets the Community objectives with respect to the protection of human health and consumer information. (2001/C 72 E/024) WRITTEN QUESTION P-1169/00 by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (10 April 2000) Subject: Modified cotton seeds The importation and cultivation of genetically modified seeds is prohibited in the European Union pursuant to Community Directives 90/220 (1) and 98/95 (2). Traditional varieties of cotton seed which also contain modified seeds have reportedly been imported into Greece. According to information from the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA), the competent international body for the certification of seeds, the USA does not certify that the seeds imported from that country are free of genetically modified material. Given that European legislation prohibits the marketing and use of modified seed, will the Commission say: 1. whether it proposes to ban imports into the EU from the USA and other countries of cotton seeds and other plant seeds for which there is no official certification that they do not contain genetically modified material, and 2. whether the Member States can unilaterally ban imports of seeds pursuant to current Community legislation? (1) OJ L 117, 8. 5. 1990, p. 15. (2) OJ L 25, 1. 2. 1999, p. 1. Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission (15 June 2000) 1. No genetically modified cotton varieties have as yet received authorisation for the placing on the market in the Community under Part C of Council Directive 90/220/EEC of 23 April 1990 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms. Two applications, concerning the placing on the market of insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant cotton, are currently pending approval in the authorisation procedure under the Directive