WRITTEN QUESTION E-2082/00 by Eija-Riitta Korhola (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Evaluation of the systems of food safety assessment and testing methods used in the Member States.
Date: 2000-06-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, European social policy, food inspection

20.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 89 E/145

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(11 September 2000)

The Commission is participating in the working groups of the United Nations economic commission for
Europe on the international codification system for low, medium and high rank coal as well as the
international classification of in-seam coals. Fuel peat is not included on this codification because peat is
not considered as a fossil fuel.

At the same time, the Commission has given a mandate to the European committee for standardization
(CEN) for the development of standards in the field of solid bio-fuels. The Commission mandate to the
CEN is intended to encourage the development of renewable sources of energy in a contribution to put
into practice the commitments taken at the Kyoto conference, by making use of biomass products from
forestry and agri-foods industries. Peat is a solid fuel that takes thousands of years to form, which can
hardly fit into this category, and thus it has been excluded from the mandate. This is in line with the
Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories under
the United Nations framework Convention on climate change (UNFCCC), that do not consider fuel peat as
an intrinsically renewable resource.

The Commission further considers that fuel peat has specific characteristics which makes it difficult to
classify. As an organic material formed over several thousand years by the accumulation of plant debris
under anaerobic water-logged conditions, peat contains most of the organic compounds of the original
plants which formed it and could therefore be regarded as an organic based fuel. The present exploitation
of peatlands must be considered within the context of the serious loss and deterioration of peatland areas
that has taken place within the Community. In this respect, national policies that combine the conserva-
tion of significant remaining peatland areas with the exploitation of a relatively small part of the overall
peat resource and an appropriate implementation of an after-use policy may, under particular conditions
of no net loss of peatland values, have a neutral or positive life-cycle impact on overall greenhouse gas
emission from peat production and use.

The role of peat as an energy source is further analysed in a technical and scientific study commissioned
by the Commission, entitled (cid:145)Evaluation for the fuel peat industry in the enlarged European Union(cid:146) and
carried out jointly by a number of peat research organisations in the Community. A copy of the study is
forwarded to the Honourable Member as well as to the Secretariat general of the Parliament.

(2001/C 89 E/159)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2082/00

by Eija-Riitta Korhola (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(28 June 2000)

Subject: Evaluation of the systems of food safety assessment and testing methods used in the Member

States

Has the Commission undertaken any evaluation of the systems of food safety assessment and testing
methods used in each of the Member States (directly, or through a third party), and if so, in which areas
does the Commission believe there may be a need for further research?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(1 August 2000)

The Commission has established through its food and veterinary office in Dublin a team of officials
responsible for the assessment of the effectiveness and equivalence of the food control systems in each
Member State under Article 5 of Council Directive 93/99/EEC of 29 October 1993 on the subject of

C 89 E/146

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.3.2001

additional measures concerning the official control of foodstuffs (1). Assessments have been carried out in
Member States which have included an assessment of the food control laboratories, their competencies, the
quality assurance of laboratory methods, equipment, facilities and other resources.

Article 7 of Council Directive 89/397/EEC of 14 June 1989 on the official control of foodstuffs (2) in
association with Article 3 of Directive 93/99/EEC requires laboratories to operate in line with the
international standards for laboratory accreditation EN 45000 series (ISO 17025:2000) before 1 November
1998. These assessment reports are published on the Commission(cid:146)s internet site http://europa.eu.int/
comm/food/fs/sfp/sfp_index_en.html.

In addition to the provisions foreseen in the legal framework for controls, the Commission is currently
sponsoring a scientific co-operation task under Council Directive 93/5/EEC of 25 February 1993 on
assistance to the Commission and cooperation by the Member States in the scientific examination of
questions relating to food (3). This task is looking at the comparison of laboratory methods for the official
control of foodstuffs and the comparability of control sampling and analysis data. The results of this task
will be available at the beginning of 2001.

(1) OJ L 290, 24.11.1993.
(2) OJ L 186, 30.6.1989.
(3) OJ L 52, 4.3.1993.

(2001/C 89 E/160)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2091/00

by JosØ Salafranca SÆnchez-Neyra (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Scientific cooperation with developing countries

(28 June 2000)

In the Commission(cid:146)s communication (cid:145)Towards a European research area(cid:146), the aim of which is to foster the
creation of a genuine European research and innovation community, no reference is made to the Union(cid:146)s
scientific cooperation with developing countries.

In view of the importance of scientific cooperation as a means of stimulating development and growth in
the developing countries, can the Commission explain the nature of its strategy for scientific cooperation
with developing countries for the Sixth Framework Programme?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(27 July 2000)

The absence of an explicit reference to scientific & technological
(S&T) cooperation with developing
countries from the Commission(cid:146)s communication (cid:145)Towards a European Research Area(cid:146) (1) does not signal a
change in policy. It reflects only the fact that this communication, as the title implies, focuses on issues
within the geographical boundaries of the Community.

As a matter of fact, the sizeable volume of S&T cooperation activities carried out with developing
countries in all the Research and technological development (RTD) framework programmes, underscores
the importance assigned to S&T cooperation with Asia (ASEM), Latin America & Caribbean (ALCUE), the
Mediterranean Partnership (Barcelona process) and Africa (Cairo Summit).

As for the preparation of future research activities of the Community, a general orientation document is
currently being prepared by the Commission. This document, to be released for discussion in early
autumn, will be followed by the formal proposal for the 6th RTD framework programme, in early 2001.