# CE2004084EN.01041801.xml

| 3.4.2004 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | CE 84/418 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 84/418

---

(2004/C 84 E/0488)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0504/04

by Albert Maat (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(24 February 2004)

Subject:   Incineration of meat-and-bone meal

Subject:

Various European media have recently reported on uncertainties about the incineration of meat-and-bone meal in Spain in 2003. According to official government figures, 400 000 tons of meat-and-bone meal was disposed of by means of incineration. According to the Spanish organisation representing operators of incinerators, however, the figure was only 40 000 tons.

| 1. | Is the Commission aware of this issue? |
| --- | --- |

1.

Is the Commission aware of this issue?

| 2. | Will the Commission call on Spain to explain the 360 000 ton discrepancy? If not, why not? |
| --- | --- |

2.

Will the Commission call on Spain to explain the 360 000 ton discrepancy? If not, why not?

| 3. | Will the Commission take measures to protect the health of European consumers and prevent this meat-and-bone meal from entering the food chain, in accordance with the current ban on feeding livestock with meat-and-bone meal? If so, what measures? If not, why not? |
| --- | --- |

3.

Will the Commission take measures to protect the health of European consumers and prevent this meat-and-bone meal from entering the food chain, in accordance with the current ban on feeding livestock with meat-and-bone meal? If so, what measures? If not, why not?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(31 March 2004)

(31 March 2004)

The Commission sent a questionnaire to Member States on 29 March 2001 asking for details of current disposal routes, the amount of animal by-products disposed of via each route and the disposal costs. As a result of the questionnaire the Commission issued a: ‘Commission services paper on the processing, disposal and uses of animal by-products in Member States’ (1).

1

The Spanish authorities indicated that there was an estimate annual output of just less than 400 000 tonnes of processed animal protein, part of which was stored in Spain and part was sent to other Member States as trade, for incineration, co-incineration or petfood. Burial in landfill sites and use as fertilisers on land were also possible disposal routes, as well as transformation in biogas and composting plants to produce biogas and biofertiliser/compost. The reply did not give a breakdown of the figures.

Figures from the industry revealed that just over 8 000 tonnes of meat and bone meal were being sent for incineration, and that there was a lack of incineration capacity in Spain.

The above disposal outlets used in Spain are in line with the current Community health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption in Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 of the Parliament and of the Council of 3 October 2002 (2), and do not contravene the provisions of the current feed ban in Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 of the Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (3).

2

3

---

(1)  MEMO/01/378 of 20.11.2001.

1

(2)  OJ L 273, 10.10.2002.

2

(3)  OJ L 147, 31.5.2001.

3

---