Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending Regulation (EEC) No. 2377/90 laying down a Community procedure for the establishment of maximum residue limits of veterinary medicinal products in foodstuffs of animal origin'
Date: 1999-04-28
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EC Regulation, animal product, food inspection, proposal (EU), veterinary drug, waste

16.6.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 169/29

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Council Regulation
(EC) amending Regulation (EEC) No. 2377/90 laying down a Community procedure for the
establishment of maximum residue limits of veterinary medicinal products in foodstuffs of
animal origin’

(1999/C 169/11)

On 1 April 1999 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Articles 43
and 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Economic and Social Committee decided to appoint Mr Braghin to act as rapporteur-general for this
work.

At its 363rd plenary session of 28 and 29 April 1999 (meeting of 28 April) the Economic and Social
Committee adopted the following opinion with 57 votes in favour and four abstentions.

1.

Introduction

2. Specific comments

The proposed Council Regulation (EC) is intended to
1.1.
adjust
laid down in Regulation (EEC)
the procedures
No. 2377/90 laying down a Community procedure for
the establishment of maximum residue limits of veterinary
medicinal products in foodstuffs of animal origin. It aims to
make them consistent with the new set of rules resulting from
the entry into force of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2309/93
of 22 July 1993, which established a European Agency for the
Evaluation of Medicinal Products and gave it the task of
the
handling matters concerning the determination of
maximum residue limits acceptable.

2.1.
The ESC observes that Article 1 duly sets out the roles
of the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal
Products, the applicant and the Commission; in particular, the
ESC endorses the proposed fixed period (120 days) for the
completion of the procedure for establishing the maximum
acceptable residue limits.

2.2.
The ESC would stress the importance of respecting the
timelimits set in the revised Article 7 of Regulation (EEC)
2377/90 to ensure transparency and legal certainty in a sector
which has vital health implications and hopes that all bodies
involved make it a priority in their work to meet the specified
deadlines.

This adjustment, somewhat late in the day, concerns a
1.2.
situation which has already been in existence for four years.
The proposal does not relate to changes in the technical/scien-
tific aspects and criteria on which the maximum residue limits
of veterinary medicinal products considered acceptable in
it solely concerns
foodstuffs of animal origin are based;
procedural changes to preserve the Regulation’s legal consist-
ency while at the same time facilitating compliance with the
commitments made in connection with the Uruguay Round
multilateral negotiations (transparency of health measures via
the introduction of reasonable periods of assigning areas of
competence).

2.3.
The ESC feels that set deadlines will enhance the
system’s credibility and provide the applicant with greater
safeguards, bearing in mind the more onerous responsibilities
that the EAEMP will be required to shoulder in examining
applications
extending
maximum residue limits.

for determining,

amending or

2.4.
The new version of the first sentence of Article 9(2)
could be improved if the vague phrase ‘shall as soon as
possible examine...’ were replaced by specific, binding dead-
lines, possibly spelling out the technical/scientific details in the
sections concerning assessment of the justification of such
grounds and consultation of the Committee for Veterinary
Medicinal Products. The ESC suggests that the procedure
should not exceed a set length of 120 days in all, as is provided
for in the Agency’s opinion.

The Economic and Social Committee welcomes this
1.3.
move to achieve clearer and consistent rules, a matter of
particular importance for both human and animal health.

2.5.
The ESC particularly welcomes the proposed publi-
cation of a summary of the assessment of the safety of the

C 169/30

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

16.6.1999

substances concerned, while respecting the confidential nature
of any proprietary data, and suggests that such summaries

should be included in the annual report of the European
Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products.

Brussels, 28 April 1999.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Beatrice RANGONI MACHIAVELLI

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on ‘Public sector information: a key resource for
Europe — Green Paper on public sector information in the information society’

(1999/C 169/12)

On 22 January 1999 the Commission decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on ‘Public sector information: a key
resource for Europe — Green Paper on public sector information in the information society’.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for
preparing the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 13 April 1999. The rapporteur
was Mr Herna´ndez Bataller.

At its 363rd plenary session (meeting of 28 April 1999), the Economic and Social Committee adopted
the following opinion, with 71 votes in favour and one abstention.

1.

Introduction

Transparency in public business is nowadays clearly an
1.1.
inescapable feature of democracy, regardless of the political
complexion of the government and the territorial structure of
public authorities. Administrative transparency helps to give
those authorities greater rigour and effectiveness in their
day-to-day work.

Encouraging a policy of

1.2.
transparency is regarded
throughout the European Union as essential in order to gain
public confidence and support in the process of European
integration.

1.3.
Declaration No. 17 appended to the Final Act of the
Treaty on European Union refers to the right of access to
information, with a recommendation to the Commission that
it submit to the Council a report on means of improving
public access to the information held by the institutions.

The European Council meetings in Birmingham and
1.4.
Edinburgh in the course of 1992, again urged the Commission
to continue its work on improving access to the information

available to the Community institutions. The Commission, for
its part, adopted Communication 93/C 156/05 (1) on public
access to the institutions’ documents, which contained the
results of a study on citizens’ access to documents in the
individual Member States and concluded that better access to
documents should be developed at Community level; this was
followed up by Communication 93/C 166/04 (2) on openness
in the Community, setting out the basic principles governing
access to documents.

1.5.
On 6 December 1993 the Council and the Commission
approved a code of conduct on public access to the documents
of both institutions: this was a ‘code of conduct’ in that it laid
down the principles which should govern such access. As a
result, the Council’s new rules of procedure included certain
rules on public access to documents, which were developed by
Council Decision d93/731/EC (3) on public access to Council
documents.

(1) COM(93) 191 final: Public Access to the Institutions’ Documents
the Parliament and the

— Communication to the Council,
Economic and Social Committee

(2) OJ C 166, 17.06.1993, p. 4: Communication to the Council, the
Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee: Openness in
the Community.

(3) OJ L 340, 31.12.1993, p. 43-44: Council Decision of 20

December 1993 on public access to Council documents.