WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3533/98 by Glenys KINNOCK to the Commission. Meat and bone meal
Date: 1998-11-25
Institutions: European Parliament, KINNOCK
Subjects: animal disease, animal nutrition, application of EU law, cattle, protection of animals

21.7.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 207/83

not been carried out, as a consequence of the failure to implement the Directive correctly. In such cases the
Commission referred the complainants to the infringement proceedings which have resulted in the ruling of
the Court mentioned above (point 1).

(1999/C 207/110)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3533/98

by Glenys Kinnock (PSE) to the Commission

(25 November 1998)

Subject: Meat and bone meal

Would the Commission clarify what the position is in relation to the feeding of meat and bone meal to
animals, including poultry, in EU countries?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(15 January 1999)

Commission Decision 94/381/EC of 27 June concerning certain protection measures with regard to bovine
spongiform encephalopathy and the feeding of mammalian derived protein (1), prohibits the feeding of protein
derived from mammalian tissues but only to ruminant species. For practical reasons and for the sake of legal
consistency, this ban was included in feedingstuffs law by Commission Decision 97/582/EC (2) of 28 July 1997
amending Decision 91/516/EEC (3) establishing a list of ingredients the use of which is prohibited in
compound feedingstuffs.

In order to prevent the users of feedingstuffs containing protein derived from tissues of mammals from feeding
them to ruminants through ignorance of current legislation, Commission Directives 97/47/EC (4) of 28 July
1997 and 98/67/EC (5) of 7 September 1998 lay down appropriate labelling of compound feedingstuffs and
feed-materials respectively, calling the attention to this prohibition.

There is currently no restriction based on Community legislation upon the feeding of meat and bone meal to
poultry. However, the Commission proposes to extend the prohibition on the feeding of protein derived from
mammals to all farmed species in the areas representing the highest transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
risk,
in its draft regulation laying down rules for the prevention and control of certain transmissible
spongiform ecephalopathies (6).

(1) OJ L 172, 7.7.1994,.
(2) OJ L 237, 28.8.1997.
(3) OJ L 281, 9.10.1991.
(4) OJ L 211, 5.8.1997.
(5) OJ L 261, 24.9.1998.
(6) COM(98) 623 final.

(1999/C 207/111)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3534/98

by Undine-Uta Bloch von Blottnitz (V) to the Commission

(25 November 1998)

Subject: Radioactive gas emissions from the Acerinox factory, Cadiz, Spain

In the answer to our Written Question on the radioactive gas emissions from the Acerinox steel factory,
located in Cadiz, Spain (14 September 1998, P-2051/98) (1), the Commission says that ‘the incident bears no
relation to the processing of iron scrap recovered from an installation of the nuclear fuel cycle, nor with the
voluntary mixing of nuclear waste with ordinary metal scraps’, and then that ‘the incident has therefore no link
with the issue of exemption of clearance levels as defined in the basic safety standards’.