WRITTEN QUESTION P-3881/00 by Hiltrud Breyer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. BSE in Germany.
Date: 2000-12-04
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Azores, Germany, Portugal, application of EU law, bovine spongiform encephalopathy

19.6.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 174 E/171

(2001/C 174 E/179)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3879/00

by Charles Tannock (PPE-DE) to the Council

(20 December 2000)

Subject: Carbon sinks

Is the Council aware that,
in its opinion on the Jorge Moreira Da Silva report for the Environment
Committee on the Commission Green Paper on greenhouse gas emissions trading within the European
Union (A5-0271/2000), the European Parliament(cid:146)s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs declared
in paragraph 16 that: (cid:145)Further study on the role of carbon sinks, and in particular the planting of forests
and the seeding of oceanic plankton, needs to be carried out in order to give consideration to credits and
an increase in the size of national
in these
environmentally desirable areas?(cid:146)

tradable carbon dioxide quotas to reflect

investment

Subject to the proviso that a mechanism must be found which will continue to generate real reductions in
emissions, does the Council accept that the issuing of credits for both planting and retaining carbon sinks
could be enormously useful, not only in encouraging a corporate culture of tree-planting in advanced
industrial countries but also in drastically reducing the rate of deforestation in less economically developed
countries which are unlikely to be enthusiastic about cutting their CO2 emissions and whose contribution
to global warming would otherwise be almost wholly negative?

Reply

(12 March 2001)

A sustainable, environmentally friendly mechanism (as envisaged by the Honourable Member) able to
generate continual and real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would indeed be very welcomed. The
question of carbon sinks, however, has been one of the most controversial and unresolved elements of
later years(cid:146) international negotiations on climate change. The Council (cid:129) being aware of the fact that the
environmental role of carbon sinks is far from clear (cid:129) has repeatedly stated and reaffirmed its serious
concerns about the issues of scale, scientific and other uncertainties and risks associated with them. In
these regards, special reference has also been made to the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC), stating a number of the difficulties connected with carbon sinks in its special
report on land-use, land-use change and forestry.

Without prejudice to these considerations of a more general nature, the Council recalls that the European
Community and its Member states have played, and continue to play, a very active and leading role in the
international negotiations on the establishment of a world-wide approach to the issue of conservation and
sustainable development of all types of forests.

In accordance with its Conclusions of 17 April 2000, the Council has committed the European Union to
make the United Nations Forum on Forest (UNFF) efficient and result-oriented, underscoring that the
operationalisation of
the Economic and Social Commission
(ECOSOC) should be a priority in the international agenda.

this newly-created subsidiary body of

(2001/C 174 E/180)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3881/00

by Hiltrud Breyer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(4 December 2000)

Subject: BSE in Germany

As the German newspaper, Frankfurter Rundschau, reported in its 25 November 2000 edition, it was
known on 24 November 2000 that, seven weeks previously, a bovine animal born in Saxony-Anhalt and

C 174 E/172

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

19.6.2001

subsequently exported to the Portuguese Azores had been diagnosed as suffering from BSE. According to
information from the Ministry of Agriculture in Portugal, the animal, which was born in September 1995,
had been shipped to the island of Sao Miguel in 1998. It was slaughtered on 2 October 2000. Pursuant to
the European legislation requiring notification of cases of BSE,
the case should have been notified
immediately to the European and German authorities.

1. When and by whom was the Commission notified of this case of BSE?

2. Was the infected animal, which originated in Germany, entered in both the Portuguese and German
BSE statistics?

3. When were the German authorities informed of this case by the Portuguese Government?

4.
As a result of this case of BSE, 2800 cattle were slaughtered on the Azores. Have any claims for
compensation been submitted to the German Government or to the agricultural supplier of the infected
animal?

5.
Pursuant to the European legislation requiring notification of cases of BSE, farmers in the respective
countries should have been informed by the authorities. To what extent were farmers in Germany so
informed?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(1 February 2001)

The rules on notification of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cases in the Community are laid
down in Council Directive 82/894/EEC of 21 December 1982 on the notification of animal diseases within
the Community (1), as last amended by Commission Decision 2000/556/EC of 27 September 2000 (2).
According to those rules each Member State shall notify directly the Commission, at least on the first
working day of each week, of all BSE cases confirmed on its territory. The notifications are made by a
computerized system and are simultaneously distributed to the veterinary authorities in all Member States.

The BSE case recently detected in the Azores was confirmed in an animal which had been exported from
Germany in October 1998. The Portuguese authorities informed the Commission of this case by fax on
23 November 2000, the day after the diagnosis had been confirmed in their national reference laboratory.
The computerized report was received on 24 November 2000.

The case was entered into the Portuguese BSE statistics as an (cid:145)imported case(cid:146). As the exact limits of the
incubation period for BSE are not known, BSE cases in animals imported from other countries are
normally not entered into the BSE statistics of the exporting country. Such information has, however, been
taken into account in the assessment of geographical BSE risk carried out by the Scientific Steering
Committee, which advises the Commission on BSE related matters.

The Honourable Member must refer to the relevant national authorities to secure the information
requested in part 4 and 5 of the question.

(1) OJ L 378, 31.12.1982.
(2) OJ L 235, 19.9.2000.

(2001/C 174 E/181)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3885/00

by Ioannis Souladakis (PSE), Minerva Malliori (PSE)
and Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Council

(20 December 2000)

Subject: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (mad cow disease)

The spread of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (mad cow disease) has put the issue of the quality and composition
of cattle feedingstuffs in the European Union back on the top of the agenda. The gradual shift in the
ingredients of animal feedingstuffs away from plants to animal products has resulted in the present