A4-0083/99

Resolution on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions 'Second Bi-annual BSE Follow-up Report' (COM(98)0598 - C4-0686/98)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Communication from the Commission (COM(98)0598 - C4-0686/98),

- having regard to the report of the Temporary Committee of Inquiry into BSE of 7 February 1997 (A4-0020/97),

- having regard to the report of the Temporary Committee to follow up the recommendations on BSE of 14 November 1997 (A4-0362/97),

- having regard to its resolution of 19 November 1997 on the report of the Temporary Committee to follow up the recommendations on BSE ((OJ C 371, 8.12.1997, p. 81.)),

- having regard to the Joint Conference of the European Parliament and the Commission of 30 November/1 December 1998 in Brussels on the European Union and the safety of foodstuffs - lessons from the BSE crisis,

- having regard to the joint report of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (A4-0083/99),

A. whereas preventive health and consumer protection must always be taken into account in European legislation and in particular must have absolute priority in all measures to prevent and combat BSE,

1. Notes that because of the negligence and omissions in the policy on combating BSE pointed out by its Temporary Committee of Inquiry into BSE, because of the long incubation period and despite the decline in the epidemic, the BSE crisis has still not been dealt with and further BSE cases can be expected, including cases outside the United Kingdom;

2. Points out that because of these omissions and the negligence of the Member States, in view of the possibly long incubation period and the now scientifically proven identity of the BSE and nvCJD pathogen, a further spread of nvCJD cannot be ruled out;

3. Calls on the Member States, in the context of the next intergovernmental conference, to eliminate the institutional deficits which were apparent when dealing with the BSE crisis;

4. Once again strongly urges the Member States and the Commission to incorporate co-decision into agricultural policy and to make the procedure under Article 189b (future Article 251) of the EC Treaty) the foundation of the legislative procedure in the agricultural sector and to submit an appropriate proposal before the next intergovernmental conference;

5. Calls on the Commission to submit to the next intergovernmental conference practical proposals to strengthen the Commission's opportunities to intervene in treaty infringement proceedings, to speed up the associated procedures and to introduce a motion of censure and other forms of reprimand or disapproval by the European Parliament in relation to individual Commissioners;

6. Points out that the President of the Commission promised a change in the Staff Regulations in 1999 which will allow more flexible implementation of disciplinary measures and strongly urges that this promise be realised forthwith;

7. Calls on the Commission to improve its provision of information and accountability to the European Parliament; considers that the staff of the Commissioners' private offices in particular must be made accountable;

8. Criticises the Commission's questionable personnel management, where lack of flexibility, in particular with regard to the necessary reassignment of unfilled posts on the establishment plan within the administration, has led to a situation where in Directorate-General IV (Agriculture), for example, important work in the area of international relations can barely be completed within the necessary deadlines because of lack of staff;

Scientific research and advice

9. Notes that the restructuring within the Commission in line with the recommendations on BSE has been carried out, resulting in particular in a separation of legislation from scientific advice and monitoring; considers, however, that it is unclear whether this separation is justified in all cases, as an improvement for consumers is not always apparent; calls on the Commission, therefore, to examine the new structures carefully, to make appropriate modifications if necessary and to inform the European Parliament of the outcome of this review;

10. Welcomes the reorganisation of scientific advice within the Commission, which has led to greater independence of the experts and to increased transparency with regard to the work of the committees; welcomes in particular the setting up of the scientific steering committee and calls on the Commission to review the working methods of the scientific committees;

11. Calls on the Commission to take appropriate measures to strengthen interdisciplinary cooperation between human and veterinary medicine at Community level, and to guarantee, in particular, improved and unrestricted access to scientific data and knowledge, including epidemiological data;

12. Welcomes the preparatory work for the validation of rapid diagnostic tests for BSE in bovines and calls on the Commission to complete the validation of the tests and the subsequent examination by the scientific committees without delay;

Inspections and control

13. Calls for the comprehensive application of testing procedures and tests for feedingstuffs and meat-and-bone meal and calls on the Commission, in this connection, to draw up a hygiene catalogue in relation to prevention of diseases;

14. Is concerned at the sluggish decline in BSE cases in the United Kingdom and calls on the Commission to obtain explanations of this situation from the competent monitoring bodies and authorities;

15. Is extremely concerned at the sharp rise in cases of BSE in Portugal and the results of the two inspection missions in that country and notes the decision adopted by the Commission on 18 November 1998 to ban the export of live bovine animals, mammalian meat-and-bone meal and, until 1 August 1999, beef and veal and beef and veal products from Portugal;

16. Notes with satisfaction that it has been possible to complete the selection procedure for the appointment of experts in the veterinary and phytosanitary sectors and calls on the Commission to fill the posts approved by the budgetary authorities without delay;

17. Welcomes the improved organisation of control and inspection activities on the part of the Commission and the Food and Veterinary Office, particularly as regards greater transparency for the publication of inspection results and the shorter time-limits for the completion and follow-up of inspection missions;

18. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the inspection reports together with all recommendations for the measures required are published not more than three months after the inspections have been carried out;

19. Notes, however, that the control and inspection activities of some Member States and also their willingness to cooperate with the Commission and the Food and Veterinary Office in carrying out their inspections is very inadequate;

20. Criticises sharply the evidence in the Commission's special report on the recommendations on BSE of 30 January 1998 of the totally unacceptable conduct of Member States, which have refused to inform the Commission, as part of its efforts to step up veterinary controls in the EU, how many food and veterinary inspectors they have and in which areas they work;

Implementation of Community law

21. Notes that the introduction of Treaty infringement proceedings against a total of 13 Member States, further to inspections carried out by the Food and Veterinary Office reveals a catastrophic picture of the non-implementation of BSE-related Community provisions in the majority of Member States;

22. Welcomes the internal reform, decided in July 1996, on applying Treaty infringement proceedings which enabled the start and completion of such proceedings against Member States to be speeded up; notes, however, that the Commission's decision to start proceedings against individual Member States could have been taken considerably more quickly after infringements had been established;

Legislation and the application of Community law

23. Considers that Community legislation on veterinary matters and general hygiene must be tightened up, better coordinated and checked with regard to practical implementation without delay and calls on the Commission to speed up the associated activities;

24. Draws attention to its request for increased efficiency in the checks on cross-border meat transport by means of cross-border exchange of information between the Member States' control centres and spot checks at the final destination and urges the Commission to submit an appropriate legislative proposal forthwith;

25. Points out in connection with the debate on risk material and with regard to future EU policy on combating diseases that a radical approach involving the removal of complete herds from the food chain would be the most appropriate strategy for combating BSE and that it is therefore essential to develop effective guidelines on prevention and for preventive consumer protection;

26. Maintains its call for compulsory public declaration of feedingstuffs ingredients and calls once again on the Commission to submit a proposal along these lines; considers that the difficulty of making a quantitative declaration should no longer serve as a pretext to prevent a qualitative declaration;

27. Regrets the delays in the Commission's response to the debate on the Green Paper on 'The General Principles of Food Law in the European Union' (COM(97)0176 - C4-0213/97), with the Commission unfortunately still not making its reasons for this delay known in the report under consideration;

28. Welcomes the submission of a proposal for extension of the product liability directive (85/374/EEC) to primary agricultural products, but criticises the fact that, in this proposal, the Commission has failed to deal with the shortcomings in the product liability directive which have emerged as a result of the work on the BSE crisis (e.g. the duration and financial limits of liability); is particularly critical of the fact that the Commission is not prepared to take over the amendments adopted by Parliament at first reading ((OJ C 359, 23.11.1998, p. 25.));

29. Calls on the Commission, in terms of preventive health protection, to adopt a much more restrictive approach than in the past to the use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine;

30. Notes that the use of antibiotics in meat production can lead to increased resistance to antibiotics in consumers and that therefore the general use of antibiotics in animal feedingstuffs as growth promoters must be prohibited and demands that instead the use of antibiotics should be allowed only subject to veterinary prescription; welcomes the decision proposed by the Commission and adopted unopposed by the Council to stop the authorisation of four antibiotics as feed additives; considers that the Commission should take greater account than previously in particular of the problem of imports from third countries and the question of WHO monitoring;

31. Welcomes the Commission's proposal on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) (COM(98)0623), based on Article 100a (future Article 95) of the EC Treaty; insists, however, that equivalent proposals should also be submitted for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics;

32. Calls on the Commission to develop a comprehensive strategy to eradicate scrapie in sheep, such a strategy being more far-reaching than merely monitoring and rules on animal movements;

International aspects

33. Criticises the delays in the Commission's attempts to prepare for the full entry of the Community into the Codex Alimentarius and the International Office of Epizootics (OEI);

34. Calls, at international level, and in particular within the World Health Organisation (WHO), the International Office of Epizootics (OEI) and the Codex Alimentarius, for the fundamental principles of transparency (e.g. in the selection of scientific advisers and the publication of opinions and minutes) and accountability to be given the same high importance as in the EU and specifically supports all efforts being made to this end;

35. Calls on the Commission, in the forthcoming negotiations on the SPS agreement and the Codex Alimentarius, to take steps to ensure that in the principles followed in an international context in particular the principles of prevention and improved transparency of activities are taken into account;

Situation with regard to CJD and nvCJD cases and assistance to nvCJD victims

36. Welcomes the agreement to give financial support to an association for its work in helping victims of nvCJD and calls on the Commission to continue to support the work of such associations in the years ahead;

37. Considers it necessary, in view of the clear increase in new nvCJD cases in the United Kingdom, to implement compulsory notification of nvCJD in all Member States, and in particular in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Portugal, and to introduce a European register of all CJD and nvCJD cases;

Frauds and financial aspects

38. Stresses that with regard in particular to the investigation currently taking place in the United Kingdom on shortcomings of the British authorities, the question of claims for compensation and of this matter being taken into account in the clearance of accounts must be discussed further;

39. Notes that, with regard to the illegal commercial exports of British beef, only total clarification of the background and the prosecution of those responsible can restore consumer confidence in the quality of the beef on offer and calls on the authorities in the Member States concerned and the competent bodies at European level (in particular UCLAF) to cooperate more closely in this field;

Consumer's guide

40. Welcomes the revision of the Guide to BSE and considers the publication of the third edition to be an important contribution to consumer information about the steps taken to combat BSE;

41. Takes the view that a further development of the common agricultural policy towards sustainable farming practices and integrated concepts of production 'from plough to plate' offer the best conditions for the production of healthy food and calls on the Commission and the Council to push forward this orientation consistently in the decisions to be taken on Agenda 2000;

Concluding remarks

42. Notes with satisfaction that the Commission has implemented many of the recommendations on BSE as regards improved consumer and health protection; stresses, however, that the Commission and the Member States must still make further efforts in connection with BSE;

43. Notes once again that there continues to be fundamental disagreement between Parliament and the Commission on five points, in respect of which Parliament already noted in November 1997 that the Commission had not implemented the recommendations of the Committee of inquiry into BSE; the following points of the report of the committee of inquiry into BSE are concerned:

- point 5.1 (proposals for legislation for claiming back the costs for BSE)

- point 5.2 (disciplinary measures)

- point 5.3 (administrative proceedings against the United Kingdom [repayment of sums paid for the eradication of BSE])

- point 5.5 (proceedings against the British government for the failure of Mr Hogg, the UK Minister of Agriculture, to appear) and

- point 6.1 (use of the motion of censure against individual members of the Commission);

44. Calls on the Commission to present to it an annual written report for each policy area describing how the principle of preventive health and consumer protection was integrated into the activities undertaken and in particular in the proposals for legislation submitted by the Commission;

45. Calls on the Commission to remain mindful of the BSE crisis in its institutional activities and to resist all temptations to revert to its old less transparent patterns of behaviour, in particular with regard to preventive consumer and health protection, the choice of legal bases in proposals for legislation and transparency in cooperation with the European Parliament.

46. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.