Eamon Gilmore
Question:24 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food his plans to ensure that food from countries following EU enlargement will meet the highest safety standards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3879/03]
Written Answers. - Food Safety Standards.
A key element in the enlargement negotiations in agriculture was that the candidate countries are required to transpose the EU veterinary and phytosanitary legislation into their own national legislation and ensure its full and effective implementation from their date of accession. The main objective of this has been to ensure that enlargement would not result in any dilution of the existing EU levels of public health, food safety, animal health, animal welfare, plant health and plant quality. Furthermore, candidate countries were required to ensure that all their external borders satisfy the levels of controls required in the EU and to ensure full and effective enforcement of the internal market control systems, from the day of accession.
A number of food processing establishments in the candidate countries have been granted a transitional period in order to upgrade their facilities to meet EU standards. Such transitional periods are limited in time and scope and do not involve any exemption from food hygiene legislation. Products from the establishments concerned must be specifically labelled and may not be marketed in other member states during the transitional periods. The European Commission and the food and veterinary office will monitor the implementation of the EU rules following the accession of the new member states.