WRITTEN QUESTION P-1985/00 by María Izquierdo Rojo (PSE) to the Commission. Irresponsibility and risks concerning mad cow disease in Spain.
Date: 2000-06-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European social policy, Spain, bovine spongiform encephalopathy

6.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 72 E/161

and rural communities, would the Commission outline the current status of the legal challenges, confirm
whether it has yet gathered all the information it requested before it could investigate the matter fully, state
its position on the case and, if no such position can be conveyed at present, confirm a date when the
Commission will announce its decision?

(1) OJ C 374 E, 28.12.2000, p. 81.
(2) McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors, on behalf of Transaction Network Services, Dublin.

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(19 July 2000)

Further to the answer to the Honourable Member(cid:146)s Written Question E-463/00, the Honourable Member is
informed that the Commission is at the moment in the process of gathering additional
information,
necessary to investigate the allegations made by Transaction Network Services Limited. The Commission
hopes to come to a position on the complaint immediately after receiving this additional information.

(2001/C 72 E/205)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1985/00

by Mar(cid:237)a Izquierdo Rojo (PSE) to the Commission

(8 June 2000)

Subject: Irresponsibility and risks concerning mad cow disease in Spain

The European Union(cid:146)s Scientific Committee, the highest of the bodies responsible for monitoring Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), has revealed that the fact that Spain has imported cattle from Great
Britain classes it among those countries where this serious disease is likely to be present. Is there a risk that
animals in Spain may be infected with BSE? How many cattle have been imported? What steps should be
taken to avoid this risk? Have there been any confirmed cases of BSE in Spain? Is the Commission aware
that the Spanish ministry has reacted furiously to this European report, which it considers irresponsible?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(17 July 2000)

1. and 2.
The report to which the Honourable Member refers is a draft report from the scientific steering
committee (SSC), that has been put on Internet, on request of this committee, with the invitation to
provide new factual scientific information, before its finalisation.

The question on the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk in Spain and on the most critical
imports to Spain and their order of magnitude cannot be finally answered before the final version of the
report of the scientific steering committee on the geographical risk in Spain is available.

3.
The removal and destruction of specified risk materials from animals at slaughter is the single most
important public health protection measure where a risk of BSE infected animals being slaughtered cannot
be excluded. Such measures will be mandatory in all Member States as of 1 October 2000. Other
measures, such as banning the use of mammalian meat-and-bone meal
in ruminant feed, appropriate
heat treatment of meat-and-bone meal intended for the feeding of other animal species and banning the
export of live bovine animals and bovine products from countries with a high incidence of BSE have
already been implemented by the Community. Furthermore the surveillance of BSE in all Member States
will be enhanced by the introduction of rapid post mortem tests as of 1 January 2001.

C 72 E/162

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.3.2001

4.

There are no confirmed BSE cases in Spain.

5.
The Commission is aware that the Spanish Minister has qualified the report as irresponsible. The
Commission underlines that the draft report is from the scientific steering committee that advises the
inter alia, on all matters relating to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs),
Commission,
including BSE. This body is independent and acts as transparently as possible, as requested by, among
others, the Parliament. In order to give all interested parties an opportunity to compare the assessments of
different Member States the SSC has decided to publish the draft reports together with a preliminary
opinion on the Internet. It has indicated its intention to take due account of all comments received before
20 June 2000, as long as they relate to risk assessment and not to risk management. The Commission is
aware that the scientific steering committee has seriously discussed the issue of this publication. It came to
the conclusion that
its responsibilities with regard to the
transparency of its work.

it should go ahead in order to respect

(2001/C 72 E/206)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1988/00

by Carlos Coelho (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(9 June 2000)

Subject: Internal market: delays in transposing European directives

Statements have been published to the effect that the Member States have been cutting back on their
efforts to transpose European internal market legislation into national law within the corresponding time-
limits.

The gap between Member States applying single market legislation (particularly Sweden, Finland and Spain)
and those delaying transposition (four countries (cid:129) Greece, Portugal, France and Luxembourg (cid:129) account
for over 40 % of delays) has widened dramatically.

Given that Portugal is among the countries with the worst deficit:

(cid:129) can the Commission clarify whether the above statements are accurate with regard to Portugal?

(cid:129) can it provide a list of all directives (regardless of the area concerned) awaiting transposition in

Portugal, indicating the subject and the length of the delay in each case?

(cid:129) can it provide a breakdown of these directives in order of urgency, based on the importance which it

attaches to each case?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(12 July 2000)

The single market scoreboard report (1), shows an increasing gap between Member States implementing
internal market legislation in a timely way and those accumulating delays. On 15 April 2000, the cut off
date for transposition data used in the scoreboard, Greece, France, Luxembourg and Portugal accounted for
44 % of all cases of delayed transposition (344 overdue implementing measures out of a total of 786).

The list of directives overdue in Portugal is sent directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s
Secretariat. It is not possible to provide a breakdown in order of urgency. Member States are under a legal
obligation to implement all directives on time. Failure to do so results in the opening of infringement
proceedings by the Commission in accordance with Article 226 (ex Article 169) of the EC Treaty.

(1) SEC(2000) 879.