WRITTEN QUESTION E-3117/00

by Konrad Schwaiger (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(6 October 2000)

Subject: Regulation 2000/418/EC and the separate processing of material presenting risks as regards TSEs

I wish to notify the Commission of a problem brought to my attention by my constituents.

On 29 June 2000 the Commission issued Regulation 2000/418/EC(1), which makes it compulsory for all Member States to collect, process and incinerate specified risk material (material presenting risks as regards TSEs) from animal carcasses and slaughterhouse waste separately after 1 October 2000. This takes no account of the fact that Germany has been recognised as BSE-free according to the Animal Health Code of the International Office of Epizootics. The obligation in question will cost Baden-Württemberg around DEM 5 million, or an estimated DEM 35 to 40 million for Germany as a whole. A new regulation which the Commission is currently drawing up is supposed to provide for exemptions from these rules.

When will the draft regulation be submitted to the Council and the European Parliament? Would it be possible, pending the entry into force of the regulation providing for exemptions, to introduce a Commission decision excluding EU Member States that are BSE-free from the requirement for separate processing?

(1) OJ L 158, 30.6.2000, p. 76.

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(22 November 2000)

The Commission adopted as a precautionary measure Decision 2000/418/EC regulating the use of material presenting risks as regards transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and amending Decision 94/474/EC. It did so in view of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cases continuing to occur in the Community, even in Member States that have not identified native cases in the past, and the repeated statements of the scientific steering committee (SSC) recommending the exclusion of specified risk materials (SRMs) from food and feed chains. This Decision applies also to Germany and requires since 1 October 2000 a range of specified risk material to be removed. There is no question of any exemption to this measure.

After adoption of that Decision the SSC consolidated those statements by adopting its final opinion on the geographical risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Following an analysis of the available information on the key risk factors the SSC came to the conclusion that the presence of BSE could not be excluded in any Member State. It also concluded that in Germany, Spain and Italy the presence of BSE in the national cattle herds is likely, even if hitherto no domestic cases had been identified. This opinion and the supporting Member States reports expanding in detail on the reasons behind the evaluation have since been published on the internet.

The International Animal Health Office (OIE) has not yet proceeded to recognise any of its members as BSE free on the basis of its animal health code on BSE. In order to do so the OIE general assembly would first have to agree the questionnaire providing the information for carrying out the assessment on fulfilment of the criteria for BSE freedom. The subsequent step would be the approval of a proposal for listing of the BSE free members. The approval of the questionnaire is only foreseen for May 2001, and the listing of BSE free members not before May 2002. The OIE code criteria for BSE freedom address a range of risk factors of which the number of reported cases of BSE is only one element. In this sense there is no conflict between the OIE code and the above mentioned SSC opinion on geographic BSE risk.