The European Commission, together with the Dutch authorities, recently hosted a workshop focusing on controls at large distribution centres storing pesticides for use throughout the EU. Weaknesses in controls at this critical point of the distribution chain had been identified in numerous Member States in a recent audit series carried out by the audit and analysis directorate of the Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety. The overview report on this series will be published before the summer. This workshop, which took place in Rotterdam on 15 and 16 February, and had sixteen Member States participate, follows the establishment in 2016 of two Working Groups dedicated to pesticide enforcement issues. This demonstrates the commitment of the European Commission and the Member States to ensure that only pesticides which have passed a rigorous evaluation are marketed and used in the EU, so as provide the highest possible level of assurance to citizens, while protecting sustainable EU based jobs in this innovative industry.
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In its Health and Food Audits and Analysis programme for 2017, the Commission plans to conduct 212 audits and fact-finding missions in EU Member States and non-EU countries covering the areas of food safety, animal health and welfare, and plant health. A further 25 assessments will be implemented in the medical devices sector, as a joint initiative with Member States, EFTA and EEA countries' authorities. The objective of these measures is to ensure that EU legislation on food safety, animal health, animal welfare, plant health and certain areas of human health is properly implemented and enforced. The Commission also aims to conduct a range of desk analyses to support its audit activities as well as a broad range of follow-up, networking and training activities. The outcome of the audits carried out by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, and, in particular, its Directorate on Health and Food Audits and Analysis, will be made available to the public. Specific audit topics will be summarised in overview reports, which serve as a basis for a discussion with Member States about identified common challenges and best practices to share. The programme also contains a summary of the audits performed in 2015. Through this work, the Commission is able to retain its critical oversight of the operation of control systems, and to identify any areas for improvement. These measures allow the Commission to establish whether the legislation in these areas remains effective, and to be proactive in ensuring it is fit for purpose to minimise risks to food safety, public health, animal health and welfare, and plant health. As a result EU citizens enjoy a continued high level of safety, and that goods are traded under safe and fair conditions.
The Commission convened a dedicated BTSF workshop on controls of quality schemes (Protected Designations of Origin (PDOs), Protected Geographical Indications (PGIs), Traditional Specialities Guaranteed (TSGs) for agricultural products and foodstuffs). This was held at the offices of the Commission´s DG Health and Food Safety in Ireland on 6-8 December 2016. The workshop was organised to follow up on the main findings in the overview report on controls in this sector which was published in January 2016 (2015-8439). The workshop provided a forum to exchange good practices identified and an opportunity to consult with Member State experts on the results of this project. It also provided an opportunity to reach conclusions on the priority areas for improvements in official controls of PDO/PGI/TSG to be implemented at EU level and by the Member States, aiming to further strengthen the reliability of guarantees provided by the EU quality symbols and labelling rules.
The Commission just launched a new web-based system called Europhyt-Outbreaks, which will enhance the level of protection against plant pests. It enables official plant health services of Member States and Switzerland to notify to the Commission and Member States the presence of organisms harmful to plants detected in their territory and of the phytosanitary measures taken to eradicate or avoid their spread. It will further broaden the risk management capacity in the field of plant health, which is a priority objective for DG SANTE, and thereby increase the level of protection of the Union territory against the possible spread of harmful organisms. EUROPHYT-Outbreaks is based on Commission Implementing Decision 2014/917/EU setting out detailed rules for these notifications. It was designed and developed by the Commission with the support of a number of Member States, Switzerland, the European Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO) and the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). It is aimed at supporting Member States in their reporting obligations while ensuring that comprehensive and harmonised data is provided and distributed to all official plant health services within the EU.
With the increase in trade over the last decades, the risk of introducing new plant pests and diseases has increased. These can spread and lead to environmental damage, destruction of native plant species, substantial economic losses in agricultural production and an increase in the use of pesticides. Therefore measures to prevent their introduction and spread are essential. Harmful organisms (HOs) in plants and plant products imported into the EU or being traded within the EU itself are notified to the EUROPHYT-interceptions rapid alert system, which is managed by the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. This network is used to monitor interception trends, as a basis for risk management by member countries and for taking EU measures to address particular risks. Notifications are immediately transmitted to all member plant health authorities and to the country of export. In relation to goods from Non-EU countries, the Annual Report shows that overall, the number of notifications increased by 4.4%. However, within this total, the main trends were an overall decrease in total number of interceptions due to the presence of HO and an increase in interceptions of wood packaging material (WPM) interceptions for both HO presence and non-compliance with ISPM 15. Three key components are highlighted: • 2,607 notifications due to non-compliance of wood packaging material with international phytosanitary requirements (ISPM 15), up by 30% from 2014; • 2,136 notifications were due to the presence of harmful organisms (HOs), down by 11% from 2014; • 1,805 notifications resulting from documentary problems (lacking or inappropriate phytosanitary certificate), up by 1% from 2014. For interceptions due to the presence of HOs, the main commodities intercepted at import were fruit and vegetables (72.3%), WPM (13.2%), cut flowers (5.1%) and planting material (2.4%). In response to the risks posed by the interception of certain commodities, the Commission has taken a number of measures, which have resulted in a drop in the number of interceptions of these imports from some countries, while work is ongoing to improve the situation in other cases. The Annual Report provides a wide range of analysis of the notifications made to the system in 2015 and describes measures taken by the Commission to address certain risks.
A report of an audit in Slovakia on the implementation of EU rules on the harmonised monitoring and reporting of AMR in bacteria obtained from certain food and food producing animal populations finds, that Slovakia has improved its AMR monitoring framework. Harmonised monitoring data are crucial to understand current and future AMR trends and to develop strategies to fight AMR. The audit report concludes also that: a) some factors still weaken the harmonised implementation of AMR monitoring, notably in the area of data representativeness and the coordination role of the National Reference Laboratory for AMR, b) Slovakia recent initiatives bring together human and veterinary aspects of AMR, which is supporting the establishment of a “One Health” approach to tackle AMR development. The assessment of the Slovakian competent authorities’ action plan showed that it addressed satisfactorily the report’s recommendations. The audit is part of a project with the aim to assess how Member States implement Decision 2013/652/EU. The project serves to: • provide information to stakeholders about AMR monitoring, • identify common challenges regarding the implementation of legislative requirements, • make recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of monitoring systems, and • disseminate information on good practices. The report can be found at the following read more... link
A three-day meeting and webinar in October to discuss how to minimise tail biting and reduce tail-docking of pigs, delivered several helpful actions and conclusions, such as: • Competent authorities need to join forces with industry towards the same goal and use projects to help farmers and facilitate funding; • Competent authorities' strategies should include official controls and engage all the key stakeholders, especially farmers; • Multi-factorial problem need a multi-faceted solution; • All Member States should follow the examples of countries where clear strategies and well defined projects are already implemented, like for example in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. In addition, the Commission reminded participants that Member States should: • obtain good risk-assessments for each farm and set and publish compliance criteria for Directive 2008/120 (the "pig directive"), including the development of methodologies to measure prevalence for tail biting/tail-docking and therefore measuring progress with/complying with the Directive: only 7 Member States can indicate prevalence at present; • rapidly raise awareness to ensure stakeholder engagement and to improve the management of pigs and their environment to avoid routine tail-docking of pigs. The meeting was organised by the Commission´s DG Health and Food Safety from 4 to 6 October 2016. Its programme was delivered by experts from industry, Member State competent authorities, research bodies, EU institutions and NGOs. Case studies facilitated the exchange of good practice and discussion groups focussed on better solutions for the future. The work of the EU Farewell Dock (http://farewelldock.eu/) project was also presented at this meeting which was web-streamed, allowing questions from viewers to be answered during the meeting. The webinar can be viewed at the following link (read more...):
A new overview report of the European Commission finds that official controls in aquaculture are in general implemented with a high level of expertise, and support the development of the sector as a whole. However, certain procedures for aquaculture farms registration and authorisation are complex, often long and misinterpreted. The report consists of a series of fact finding missions on the implementation of EU legislation on aquaculture concerning food safety, animal health and welfare. It provides a basis about what is and what is not working in relation to the enforcement of controls and the interpretation of legislation. With this regard it: • presents simplification possibilities for the drafting of new legal acts required under the animal health Regulation (EU) No 2016/429. • highlights some variations in the degree of expertise to detect health problems during official controls. • finds that the early detection of diseases might be hindered by the lack of a common approach to the concept of significant increase of mortality. Beyond that, the report emphasises the limited availability of veterinary medicines which has led in some cases to suboptimal treatment of certain diseases and the potential to increase antimicrobial resistance. In this context actions by the Commission are outlined, which aim to ensure a more effective animal health regime and more efficient access to veterinary medicines. Finally a number of good practices are described to promote their use in the aquaculture sector.
The Commission has published an overview report summarising the outcome of a 2013-2015 audit series regarding the transport of unfit animals in EU Member States. The report concludes that communication and coordination between authorities is most important to prevent or reduce the transport of unfit animals to slaughterhouses. It also presents good practices found in the UK, the Netherlands and Italy. Challenges for effective enforcement include cross-border movements and use of foreign hauliers. While most Member States have processes and sanctions in place to prevent the transport of unfit animals, these often take too long to be effective or are not dissuasive. The Commission has launched a pilot project on "best practices for animal transport" to identify and share good practices to assess the fitness of animals for transport. It also facilitates each year a meeting of national experts, discussing animal welfare during transport.
The European Commission Directorate General for Health and Food Safety is organising a three day meeting at the offices of its Health and Food Audits and Analysis Directorate in Ireland on actions to prevent tailbiting and reduce tail docking of pigs. The programme includes a wide range of relevant topics. It is delivered by experts from industry, Member State Competent Authorities, research bodies, and the EU institutions. Case studies will facilitate the exchange of good practice and workshops will focus on better solutions for the future. The work of the EU FareWellDock (http://farewelldock.eu/) project will also be presented at this meeting. The meeting is aimed at the authorities of Member States, international organisations, scientists, industry, stakeholders and NGOs. The Agenda can be found below. Please note that proceedings from this meeting, apart from breakout groups, will be broadcast live on the Internet. You can follow these webcasts by searching for "tailbiting" at the "Read more…" link below (when searching, set the "to" date to 06-10-2016). Please send any questions you may have on each presentation to the functional mailbox SANTE-IRL-WEBINAR-REARING-PIGS-WITH-INTACT-TAILS@ec.europa.eu and we will try to answer as many as we can during the time for questions at the end of each individual presentation. If we cannot answer your question during the webinar, we will forward your question to the presenter for response after the event.