I shall also submit to the Parliament and Council before the end of the year an inspection report concerning the foodstuffs sector in the Member States with conclusions and recommendations stemming from inspection missions which have been carried out recently. Also of relevance to food safety, I and my colleagues, Liikanen and Wallstr m, will issue in the next few months an important paper on the precautionary principle . I am very much in favour of an appropriate use of this principle. But we need clear guidelines if it is not to be abused at the international level. Our paper should be an important contribution to the international discussions which will inevitably be a subject of debate in the WTO Millennium Round.
Intensive work is also underway on a new framework programme on public health .
I do not intend to allow the current crisis of confidence in food safety to totally dominate our agenda. On product safety generally, I intend to propose before Christmas, modifications clarifying the scope and operation of the General Product Safety Directive and making it more effective in relation to emergency situations, exchange of information, cooperation between administrations, enforcement and information exchange with third countries. So, as you can see, the work programme in the next few months is heavy and ambitious. On the international front, the Annual Assembly and Seattle meetings in November will be important as will the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue in January in Washington, which I hope to attend with you. I hope that I can count on your support and help in carrying out my responsibilities.