WRITTEN QUESTION P-0326/02

by Emilia Müller (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(5 February 2002)

Subject: Hormones and antibiotics in meat

In 1988 the European Community banned the use of hormones as growth promoters in livestock-breeding. The ban covered 17-oestradiol, testosterone, progesterone, zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melenestrol acetate and has applied since 1 January 1989 in the Community and equally to imports from third countries.

The use of certain antibiotics as growth promoters is also banned in the EU.

What consequences do the recent WTO negotiations have for the import of meat treated with hormones or antibiotics?

Who is responsible for checks in view of the ban on use in the EU and on imports from third countries?

What control systems are available to the Commission in order to verify compliance with the ban?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(4 April 2002)

The recent World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial meeting that launched the new round of trade negotiations did not include the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures in the list of agreements on which negotiations will take place. Therefore, the discussions that will follow will have no impact on the Community's ban on imports of beef derived from hormone treated animals.

The Member States are responsible for the implementation of control measures; for imports, these controls are carried out by random checks at border inspection posts.

Council Directive 96/23/EC(1) establishes that products of animal origin have to fulfil Community requirements on residue limits and prohibited substances. According to this Directive, products of animal origin have to be regularly tested for residues by Member States as well as by those third countries that export to the Community. Every year Member States and third countries have to submit monitoring plans to the Commission. Additionally, third countries have to fulfil the relevant Community requirements on legislation, implementation and enforcement. A third country is listed as complying with Directive 96/23/EC only if the guarantees provided are considered sufficient.

It is the intention of the Commission to include possible residues from feed additives within the scope of Directive 96/23/EC thereby enabling controls and the establishment of monitoring plans for the use of feed additives.

In respect of the antibiotics used as growth promoters, most of them have been banned for use as feed additives within the Union because of antimicrobial resistance risks. A proposal to ban the remaining antibiotics used as growth promoters in animal feed is currently under consideration.

Specific checks on compliance are difficult: the detection in meat or other products of animal origin of residues of antibiotics is not conclusive proof of their use as growth promotors. In addition, the possible presence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria may not be related to banned uses of feed additives in the farmed animals.

The Commission is working on a proposal for the Council and the Parliament, which was announced in the White Paper on Food Safety(2), harmonising official controls. The problems of controls at importation will be addressed by including equivalence on feeding requirements to the conditions allowing third countries to export products of animal origin in the Union.

Checks on imports of products of animal origin from third countries are carried out in border inspection posts, the first points of entry to the Community of these products. Controls are harmonised and the procedures are laid down in Council Directive 97/78/EC(3), which specifies the documentary, identity, and physical checks that must be carried out. Under this legislation Member States are required to carry out laboratory testing according to national rules, for all products of animal origin examined routinely, or on suspicion, in border inspection posts.

Commission staff from the Food and Veterinary Office conduct regular inspections of all border inspection posts in the Member States to verify that correct Community standards of facilities, staffing and procedures are maintained. These inspections include laboratory checks carried out on behalf of the border inspection posts.

(1) Council Directive 96/23/EC of 29 April 1996 on measures to monitor certain substances and residues thereof in live animals and animal products and repealing Directives 85/358/EEC and 86/469/EEC and Decisions 89/187/EEC and 91/664/EEC, OJ L 125, 23.5.1996, p. 10-32.

(2) COM(1999) 719 final.

(3) Council Directive 97/78/EC of 18 December 1997 laying down the principles governing the organisation of veterinary checks on products entering the Community from third countries, OJ L 24, 30.1.1998, p. 9.