WRITTEN QUESTION E-1480/00

by Karl-Heinz Florenz (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 May 2000)

Subject: Scope of checks made hitherto on compliance with foodstuffs and animal-feed legislation

The EU Commission has, in connection with the White Paper on Food Safety, submitted a preoposal for a directive that would require the percentages of all the components of compound-feed ingredients to be declared.

Would it not be appropriate, having regard to the legislative problems associated with this proposal (know-how protection, inadequate monitoring opportunities, etc.) for the Commission to begin by providing itself with a reliable assessment of the stage reached in implementing directives already adopted in Member States as a means of establishing the extent to which checks are in fact being carried out on compliance with foodstuffs and animal-feed legislation?

In this connection, how many farms have already been monitored, how many samples have been taken, how many analyses of ingredients, additives and undesirable substances have been conducted, and in what forms have sanctions been imposed hitherto for infringements against legislation applicable to animal feed and foodstuffs respectively?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(13 July 2000)

The Honourable Member refers to the initiatives of the Commission on the declaration of the percentages of components of compound feed ingredients currently under discussion in the Council and the Parliament. The Commission's proposal for a directive requiring full transparency on the composition of compound feedingstuff(1) was included in a package of measures presented to the Agriculture Council meeting of June 1999 and to the Parliament in September 1999 following the dioxin crisis. In both cases there was wide support for the Commission proposal. The measure is an element for ensuring a high level of food safety, as mentioned in the white paper on food safety(2).

The Commission shares the views of the Honourable Member on the need to monitor the enforcement of the relevant Community legislation in the food and feed sector. A number of instruments allowing the Commission to assess the level of implementation of Community legislation already exist.

Member States must inform the Commission about controls and sampling carried out. This is in particular the case for Council Directive 89/397/EEC of 14 June 1989 on the official controls of foodstuffs(3), obliging Member States to send the Commission all the necessary information on the implementation of the national and Community co-ordinated control programmes. This involves details of statistics on controls carried out, the number and types of samples taken, and infringements.

Information is also requested under Council Directive 96/23/EC of 29 April 1996 on measures to monitor certain substances and residues thereof in live animals and animal products(4). This imposes sampling for the detection of residues in accordance with a programme established by the Member States and approved by the Commission. A yearly report on the results of the programme must be established and communicated to the Commission by the Member States.

As for the feed sector, Article 22 of Council Directive 95/53/EC of 25 October 1995 fixing the principles governing the organization of official inspections in the field of animal nutrition(5) requires Member States to provide information on the results of inspection activities in order to set co-ordinated control programmes at Community level for the following year.

With respect to the assessment by the Commission of the transposition of Community directives it must be stressed that the Commission systematically starts infringement proceedings under Article 226 (ex Article 169) EC Treaty against Member States which fail to notify transposition measures by the dates foreseen in the directives. More detailed information on this subject can be found in the annual report on monitoring of the application of Community law published in the Official journal.

The state of implementation of the Community legislation, and whether this legislation is uniformly implemented, is also controlled by the Commission's food and veterinary office (FVO) in Dublin. The reports of these controls and the recommendations are published on the internet. They are carefully examined by the Commission, and when infringements are reported, proceedings opened. This has happened on a number of occasions.

Sanctions for infringements by feed and food operators are dealt with by the Member States. These can include, apart from legal pursuit, detention for additional testing, possible destruction of batches suspected of being contaminated or even the closing of food premises.

As explained in the white paper on food safety, the Commission believes that gathering information, including the results of official controls, is an essential element of any food safety system. It is for that reason that under action 8 in the annex to the white paper, it is the intention to propose a global instrument to allow the Commission to collect and exploit information on inspection results for all feed and food at all stages of the food chain.

The Commission regrets that it does not have at present systematic, detailed information of the kind requested on the number of inspections carried out by the Member States and samples taken by them.

(1) COM(1999) 744 final.

(2) COM(1999) 719 final.

(3) OJ L 186, 30.6.1989.

(4) OJ L 125, 23.5.1996.

(5) OJ L 265, 8.11.1995.