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Brussels, 23 April 2003 EU enlargement: Questions and Answers on food safety issues Food safety is an integral part of the EU policy on consumer protection and health. Its "farm to table" approach must thus also be adopted by the accession countries. This is a significant challenge where progress has been made but further steps still have to be accomplished.
Food safety issues are spread over two areas of the accession negotiations:
Veterinary legislation includes animal health, animal welfare, animal identification and registration, internal market control systems, external border controls and public health requirements for establishments in relation to animal products. Phytosanitary legislation includes plant health (harmful organisms, pesticides), seeds and propagating material, and plant hygiene. Animal feed legislation includes the safety of feed materials and additives, labelling, contaminants in feed, controls and inspections.
The acquis related to food safety covers a large number of legislative acts, many of which are broad in scope and demanding in terms of transposition, implementation and enforcement. It is vitally important to ensure that the acquis is fully transposed into the national legislation of each new Member State and that administrative structures and procedures are strengthened and reformed in good time prior to accession. The Commission has however considered a limited number of properly justified requests for transitional arrangements. In the veterinary and phytosanitary sector, transitional periods were negotiated on the basis that there should be no increased risk to public, animal or plant health in the EU.
The accession of the 12 new Member States will extend the eastern frontier with Russia and move the frontier eastwards to border with Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Turkey. New BIPs will equally have to be established along the borders with Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and with Macedonia. At present some 51 BIPs in total are proposed by the 10 new Member States to be ready by the time of accession. At accession the existing BIPs on the eastern land borders of Germany, Austria and Italy will become internal borders within the EU. They should close and be replaced by those on the eastern borders of the new Member States. Additional port BIPs are proposed on the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Sea coasts. In practice veterinary checks on imports include documentary, identity and physical checks of the animals or animal products presented. Following these checks at the first border crossing point into the EU, animals and products can in principle circulate freely in the internal market. It is therefore essential that BIP facilities and procedures are adequate to maintain animal and public health safety. Setting up Border Inspection Posts for veterinary and other controls in the new Member States requires buildings, equipment and staff to be in place to carry out the required border checks. EU legislation sets out minimum standards for BIP facilities, depending on the type of products to be checked. However, time is short and a lot of work remains to be done. On the technical level, work is progressing well, but all sectors of government in the new Member States need to work together. The Commission is monitoring developments carefully and only those BIPs fully ready at accession will be approved and listed. The Commission will need to take a legal decision through the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health composed of Representatives of the Member States to approve veterinary BIPs. A first draft list of BIPs to be approved will be drawn up in September 2003.
Additionally, severe conditions have been imposed as regards the marketing and the special marking of the products coming from establishments in transition: Products must stay on the domestic market of the new Member States and cannot be sold within the EU. Therefore these products will have to be clearly marked so as to distinguish them from those that can be traded within the internal market. The Commission will closely monitor the situation in the establishments and the new Member States will have to report annually on developments. For establishments that have no transitional periods and do not fulfil EU legislation, the Treaty is clear. If they do not comply with EU standards by the time of accession, they will be closed down. The list of establishments in transition can be amended by Commission decision, but only to a limited extent.
At the moment, the new Member States have many agri-food establishments that may not fulfil all the detailed requirements of EU legislation governing the infrastructure and organisation of the production chain. In food factories, implementation of EU rules may mean bigger investments in rebuilding/refurbishing part of the factory. There has been a rationalisation process going on. Those establishments which do not meet the EU rules and which are not subject to transitional arrangements will be closed. To implement effective pesticide residue monitoring for example, the new Member States need to set up a sampling programme (covering both domestic production and imported food), an analytical programme, have the necessary laboratory infrastructure and equipment and have properly qualified staff. They also must put in place effective procedures for identifying lots, reporting results of analysis and for taking appropriate action should problems arise. Laboratories need to be accredited according to norms on good laboratory practice, such as ISO. Similar requirements apply to the monitoring of residues such as hormones, antibiotics and contaminants, and also testing for the presence of diseases, such as BSE.
Eight countries have already launched large-scale BSE testing and the remainder(4) are planning to start in the course of 2003. The EU is co-financing the testing programme through Phare programmes. The Commission will continue to closely monitor progress in implementing the BSE measures. There can be no compromise on this.
Investment for upgrading Border Inspection Posts are in many cases assisted through funding from the Phare programme. Financing for upgrading (adapting, rebuilding or creating) plants processing and marketing meat, dairy, fish and other agricultural products is provided through SAPARD programmes. Almost a billion Euros have been earmarked for this. BSE testing in the new Member States is also co-financed under the Phare programme and most of the new Member States are making use of this.
The Commission's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) plays an important role in monitoring the level of observance of food hygiene and of veterinary and plant health legislation in the new Member States. Inspection visits to candidate countries was its top priority for 2002. General assessment missions to all candidate countries were undertaken between April 2001 and March 2002. These missions covered all aspects of the food safety acquis including animal health, animal welfare and plant health. They aimed at gaining an overall impression of the preparedness of applicant countries for accession. Subsequently, more detailed assessments have started. Their objective is to monitor the progress the new Member States are making in implementing EU law. For 2003 they will mainly concentrate on the 10 countries that are joining the EU in 2004 with 4-5 inspections each covering the following five broad areas:
The Commission will share the results of these visits with the Member States.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/negotiations/treaty_of_accession_2003/index.htm Annex Agreed transitional periods per country, listing number of establishments per sector
Appendix B
List of red meat establishments in transition, including shortcomings
and deadlines
(1) Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia (2) Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia (3)
Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Slovenia
(4)
All countries are testing for BSE, but Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
are not yet carrying out the wide-scale BSE testing that is required in
EU legislation.
Acceding states warned over slow take-up of rules 01.05.2003 - 09:53 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The 10 EU acceding states could face punitive measures imposed by the European Commission, if they fail to implement the necessary legislation before November this year. A monitoring exercise by the Commission last February revealed shortcomings in legislative areas by many of the prospective EU entrants, which will be followed up through early warning letters. A list obtained by EUobserver shows that whilst the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus and Hungary have problems in one area, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Slovakia are in a more risky position. Poland still needs to make progress in nine areas, which includes free movement of goods, fisheries, competition policy, financial control and industrial policy. Latvia, on the other hand, has five problem areas, as in free movement of capital, taxation, transport policy, customs union and financial control. Slovenia is the only acceding country from the 10 that appears to be implementing the acquis without serious delays. Final report in November The Commission will present an update of the present monitoring reports for the ten acceding countries in mid-May, which will also be covering agriculture and financial and budgetary provision chapters. At the latest in July 2003, the Commission will assess the implementation of commitments necessary for the programming of structural funds, before presenting the comprehensive monitoring report on 5 November. On the basis of the November report, the Commission will possibly draw up measures that could be taken, known as safeguard clauses, in areas where severe gaps have been identified. "The idea behind this is to protect the EU internal market", Commission sources said. "In some cases, acceding states could see their acquis suspended." The acceding countries are also being warned verbally. On Tuesday, enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen urged the Parliament chiefs of the acceding states to implement quickly the proper legislation for the acquis, possibly already by September. "Please do so, just that your countries should have a clear record", Mr Verheugen said. He pointed out two major difficulties that the future members still have to cope with - food safety and lack of decentralisation in the management of EU funds. On Monday Poland, one of the biggest prospective EU entrants, also received
a stern warning from the director general of enlargement, Eneko Landaburu
who warned the Polish government that if it does not speed up its preparations
for EU membership, the Commission might introduce the so-called safeguard
measures from November this year.
Polska-UE: nieoczekiwane ostrzeżenie Przedstawiciel Komisji Europejskiej grozi Polsce sankcjami za opóźnienia w przygotowaniach do członkostwa. Eneko Landaburu sugeruje, że Unia może od listopada wprowadzić tzw. klauzule ochronne. Z tą niespodziewaną groźbą Eneko Landaburu wystąpił na posiedzeniu komisji wspólnej polskiego parlamentu i Parlamentu Europejskiego. Zabierając głos w imieniu Komisji Europejskiej jej drugi najważniejszy
urzędnik do spraw poszerzenia zachęcił polski rząd do realizowania zobowiązań
dotyczących przygotowań do przystąpienia do wspólnoty. Jednocześnie też
zagroził, że jeśli
Odpowiadając na te ostrzeżenia szef sejmowej komisji europejskiej Józef Oleksy powiedział, że nie wyobraża sobie, by Polska dała Unii powody do wprowadzenia sankcji. (BBC, waw)
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