WRITTEN QUESTION E-2513/01 by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Uncontrolled dumping of animal waste in Greece.
Date: 2001-09-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU control, Greece, agricultural waste, application of EU law, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, cereal substitute, degradation of the environment, disease prevention, meat processing industry, waste management

16.5.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 115 E/105

The validity of this study was fully confirmed in the ‘90s and until 2000, when four virus incursions in the
Community were successfully controlled without giving rise to large epidemics. Under these circumstances,
the Community clearly benefited from the adopted policy,
in terms of a remarkable decrease in the
number of FMD outbreaks compared with the’80s, considerable savings on vaccination costs, and evident
advantages on intra-Community trade and export to third countries of live animals and their products.

The Community antigen bank contains 39,2 million vaccine equivalent cattle doses of antigen of several
serotypes and strains of the FMD virus, including 10,5 million doses of serotype O antigen, which is
sufficiently homologous to the current UK strain. About one million doses of antigen can be formulated
into vaccine within four days and about seven million doses within two weeks. In addition, about 1,5
million doses of vaccine might be available within similar delays from the reserves kept in the national
vaccine banks of certain Member States. Furthermore, throughout this epidemic the Commission has been
storing for immediate supply 300 000 doses of ready-to-use vaccine that included also a suitable O-strain.
This vaccine was only most recently released for emergency vaccination in Turkish Thrace, when an
outbreak of FMD type O was reported close to the Greek border.

In case of urgent need many more million doses may be produced within a few weeks by a number of
private companies in the Community that produce this vaccine routinely for marketing in third countries.

(1) OJ L 53, 23.2.2001.
(2) OJ L 125, 5.5.2001.

(2002/C 115 E/109)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2513/01

by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(13 September 2001)

Subject: Uncontrolled dumping of animal waste in Greece

According to my information, a great many slaughterhouses, butcher’s shops and meat factories in Greece
do not take their animal waste to special processing plants but simply dump it in the environment. This
practice is in breach of Council Decision No 2000/766/EC (1) which lays down that Member States shall
ensure that animal waste as defined by Directive 90/667/EEC (2) is collected, transported, processed, stored
or disposed of in accordance with that Directive, Commission Decision 97/735/EC (3) and Council Decision
1999/534/EC (4).

The problem of uncontrolled dumping of animal waste in the environment became more acute in Greece
when two of the three independent animal waste processing industries were closed down owing to the ban
on meat and bone meal.

1. What measures will the Commission take to persuade Greece to comply with Community legislation?

2. What are the risks to public health associated with the uncontrolled dumping of animal waste in the
environment?

Is there any provision to compensate companies which process animal waste to produce animal feed

3.
and which have closed down because of the ban on the sale of such animal feed?

(1) OJ L 306, 7.12.2000, p. 32.
(2) OJ L 363, 27.12.1990, p. 51.
(3) OJ L 294, 28.10.1997, p. 7.
(4) OJ L 204, 4.8.1999, p. 37.

C 115 E/106

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

16.5.2002

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(26 October 2001)

Commission experts from the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General’s (DG) Food and
1.
Veterinary Office (FVO) carry out regular on-the-spot checks in all Member States to verify the correct
implementation of Community food safety and veterinary legislation. Reports of these missions have been
published on the Health and Consumer DG website. In relation to matters relating to public and animal
health, the Commission’s policy is to maintain a high level of vigilance in order to ensure that Member
States fully comply with their obligations under Community law.

Where, after establishing the facts, it appears to the Commission that a Member State is not fulfilling its
obligations, the Commission is prepared to take all necessary action within its power in order to secure the
respect of Community law. In appropriate cases this action would include the opening of infringement
proceedings under Article 226 (ex Article 169) of the EC Treaty.

2.
A range of Community legislation lays down the public and animal health requirements to ensure
that animal by-products are disposed of or processed in safe and controlled conditions to prevent the
spreading of pathogens, including transmissible spongiform encephalopathies agents, in the environment.
This legislation includes in particular: Council Directive 90/667/EEC of 27 November 1990 laying down
the veterinary rules for the disposal and processing of animal waste, for its placing on the market and for
the prevention of pathogens in feedstuffs of animal or fish origin and amending Directive 90/425/EEC (1),
Council Decision 1999/534/EC of 19 July 1999 on measures applying to the processing of certain animal
waste to protect against transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and amending Commission Decision
97/735/EC, and Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 of the Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001
laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies (2). The non respect of those requirements could result in exposing, in a direct or in an
indirect way, humans and animals to infected material.

3.

No.

(1) Directive as last amended by the 1994 Act of Accession.
(2) OJ L 147, 31.5.2001. Regulation as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1326/2001 of 29 June 2001

(OJ L 177, 30.6.2001).

(2002/C 115 E/110)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2515/01

by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 September 2001)

Subject: Answer to Written Question P-2140/99

Mr Byrne’s answer to Written Question P-2140/99 (1) not only fails to make any sense but also amounts to
an invitation to produce more tobacco, as if there were no link between consumption (demand) and
production (supply).

Is the Commission aware that for many years the United Nations has been supporting and funding a
campaign to promote alternative crops to poppies in the Golden Triangle and coca in the Andes?
Obviously not. What the Commission seems to be interested in, however, is tobacco growing.

As it is the European taxpayers’ money that is involved not that of the Commission, I must insist on
knowing where the money has gone, country by country, over the past three years. As far as the inexact
reference in the above written question is concerned (the word company can also cover farms, I would ask
the Commission to think again and answer the question in the interests of openness rather than secrecy.

(1) OJ C 219 E, 1.8.2000, p. 99.