Food quality and safety pushed up European agenda
Measures to protect the interests of consumers lie at the heart of a new phase in the development of EU agricultural policy announced at an informal meeting of agriculture ministers in Biarritz. Ministers unanimously agreed to support an initiative of the French presidency aimed at introducing policies geared less towards the traditional concerns of supporting the interests of farmers and more towards improving food quality and safety. France hopes to extend the concept of labelling products with their certificate of origin - currently used to safeguard the quality of fruit and vegetables, wine, beef products and honey - to other product categories. Agriculture Commissioner Mr Franz Fischler said the Commission had no immediate plans to extend the labelling requirements but there was scope for individual member states to develop their own initiatives. Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Mr Fischler also outlined Commission policy on the introduction of foods from genetically modified crops. GMOs were now an established part of modern agriculture and their potential value should not be neglected. But the central goal of Commission policy must be to protect the environment and public health and to take into account the rights of consumers to exhaustive information about their food, he said. The meeting did reveal some differences in the attitudes of member states towards this technology. French minister Jean Glavany acknowledged that some countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Spain believed that French policy on plant biotechnology was too cautious and did not take sufficient account of the potential advantages of the new developments. However, these differences in national policy could be ironed out with two initiatives expected to be finalised in the coming months. The Commission is due to present a legal base framework during the autumn concerning the labelling and traceability of GMOs in seed and animal feedstuffs. Meanwhile the current moratorium on commercial releases of GMOs is due to end this year and be replaced by a horizontal directive on their use, currently subject to a conciliation procedure between the Council and Parliament.e Commission
Kraje
France