Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 March 2004
2 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps he intends to take during the Irish Presidency of the EU, in his role as chairman of the Council of Agriculture Ministers, to ensure that the standards of food production and traceability in accession countries are comparable with those enforced in other EU states; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9217/04]
View answerNegotiations on the conditions of entry into the European Union for the ten candidate countries were completed some time ago. These conditions are set out in the treaties of accession signed with the candidate countries. With effect from 1 May 2004, the ten accession countries, comprising Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia, will become member states of the European Union and, as such, may, subject to meeting appropriate standards, trade with the other member states of the EU without the requirement for border controls for the purposes of animal and public health.
The standards with regard to trade are contained within Community legislation providing for health and safety controls on production and on intra-Community trade in animals, animal and plant products and foods. These controls apply in particular to the structure of and hygiene in establishments and the control and the health marking of the products.
It has been a key element of the enlargement negotiations in the agriculture sector that the candidate countries transpose the EU's veterinary legislation into their national legislation and undertake its full and effective implementation from the date of accession. The objective has been to ensure that enlargement does not result in a dilution of existing EU levels of public health, food safety, animal health and animal welfare. Furthermore, candidate countries have been required to ensure that their external borders satisfy the levels of controls required within the EU and that full and effective enforcement of the internal market control systems takes place from the day of accession.
The Food Safety Authority recently raised the important issue of ensuring that standards are in force and are applied. While I welcome the accession countries, and there will be many benefits from their accession, there are food safety concerns which, despite what the Minister has said, need to be taken on board and rigorously addressed. Has laboratory accreditation been taken account of in the accession countries in the same way as laboratories are accredited in this country to monitor food in particular? Do the same standards of accreditation apply in those countries as would apply here?
Yes, the food and veterinary office of the Commission monitors the implementation of controls in the accession states. It has a number of missions in each of the accession states examining their laboratories, food establishments, plants and so forth. They must make progress reports on a regular basis. I was talking to representatives of a number of the accession states this week in Brussels and they spoke about the rigorous inspections carried out by the food and veterinary office personnel. In most cases, they have not yet been given a clean bill of health. I continue to make the point, as I did this week, that there will be no dilution of standards. Unquestionably, accession states will have to measure up to the existing standards.
There are issues of concern with regard to traceability, even where it would appear that there are rigorous standards in place for traceability. As time moves on, we realise that these are either not enforced or not enforceable. Will the Minister comment on traceability and the origins of food products from the accession countries? How can we guarantee that the same level of traceability will apply in those countries as we expect to apply in Ireland?
I accept the Deputy's point about traceability. Consumers want to know the content and ingredients of the product they purchase and they want the labelling to be accurate. They also want to know the traceability of the product, that is, where it has come from and the ingredients fed to the livestock if it is a livestock product. The accession countries will have to measure up and adhere to those standards of traceability in the same way as existing member states.
