Mr President, the last speaker can rest assured that I do not intend to talk exclusively about the mistakes made in Belgium either. I believe that a dioxin scandal or a BSE crisis, or whatever it may be, can occur anywhere in Europe. I therefore feel it is high time that the European Commission, together with the European Council, which I understand has given its full support, should develop initiatives as rapidly as possible for bringing about a food policy at European level. Of course, it goes without saying that it is all about public health. Providing guarantees for public health must be the first priority. On the same theme, I should just like to refer to the resolution adopted in October last year, when the European Parliament gave unanimous support to producing a European quality assurance policy for foodstuffs. All foods which are to enter the marketplace and receive a European label of quality will have to have been monitored throughout the food chain. Who will be able to do this? We already know of a number of inspection bureaus that are offshoots of the biological production industry. If people do not want to buy such food, they want to have food in a different way, but so that we know exactly how it has been produced, then in my opinion that should be possible. The customer is king and the same inspection bureau that monitors biological food will also be able to monitor food subject to different standards. I think it is particularly important for this to happen in Europe. For if it happens in Europe, then we will be the first large trading block in the world to provide consumers with guarantees of food quality in this way. At the end of the day, that is what it is all about. It has already been pointed out from various quarters that our first priority is to guarantee fair competition, that if we demand something of the European producers, we can also demand the same standards of producers outside Europe. What would be the best way of bringing this about at the moment? We are already aware that there are, at present, integrated production systems in various European countries. Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, to name a few countries at random, all have standards for integrated production. It is only a pity that these standards vary from country to country and I consider that unacceptable for such large common European markets. It is, therefore, for the Commission to find the common denominator as soon as possible. I should also like to talk about what Mr Prodi said yesterday on the subject of a European food bureau. I am not yet absolutely convinced of the need for one. The American Food and Drug Administration has some five to six thousand officials. Can the Commission afford to set up something of this kind? I very much doubt it. I should therefore like to ask if it could send something to the European Parliament so that a comparison can be made. How does the American Food and Drugs Administration operate? How would it be if a particular department were to be added to our office in Dublin, the Veterinary and Phytosanitary Bureau. They could perhaps fulfil the very same function considerably cheaper. That seems to me to be something that this Parliament should consent to. Finally, I wish Finland every success. We shall take stock at the end of this year.

Political group: ELDR