Activites

• 2003/11/22 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Directive 2003/85
  • OJ L 306 22.11.2003, p. 0001-0087
• #2528
• 2003/09/29 Council Meeting
• 2003/09/29 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2003/09/29 Act adopted by Council after consultation of Parliament
• #2516
• 2003/06/11 Council Meeting
• 2003/05/15 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0215/2003 summary

    The European Parliament adopted by 409 to 10 votes, with 6 abstentions, a resolution drafted by Wolfgang KREISSL-DORFLER (PES, Germany). It made several amendments to the Commission's proposal. (Please see the summary dated 29/04/03.) In addition to several new recitals, Parliament's principal amendments were as follows: - it will not be necessary to treat or stamp meat produced in the protection zone after 30 days, provided that it is confined to the domestic market; - an information programme will be put in place in the Member states to inform the public about the safety of meat, milk and dairy products from vaccinated animals for human consumption; - Member States contingency plans must be updated every three years; - cross-border movements of vaccinated zoo animals or rare breeds are allowed, subject to OIE rules; - the Commission must approve contingency plans as a matter of urgency.�

• 2003/05/14 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2003/04/29 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0141/2003
• #2500
• 2003/04/08 Council Meeting
  • 2500 summary

    The Council took note of the important progress made at technical level on the proposal for a Council Directive on Community measures for the control of foot-and-mouth disease and held an exchange of views on some key issues of this dossier. The Council instructs the Committee of Permanent Representatives to continue actively to work in the light of the current deliberation with a view to reach a decision on the dossier once the Opinion of the European Parliament will have been given. Two issues were addressed at the Council: - several delegations expressed their concerns concerning the recognition by third countries of the new approach of the proposal for a Directive, which emphasises the role of emergency vaccination and the principle of regionalisation; for some delegations, a new strategy regarding vaccination as suggested by the proposal should first be accepted by the main trade partners outside the European Union, before being adopted. For other delegations, negotiations with third countries should not impeed the progress of discussions in the Council on the proposal. Commissioner BYRNE indicated that, although regionalisation had been agreed at international level by the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), his Institution could not guarantee the acceptance by all third countries of regionalisation and other control measures, including emergency vaccination. - delegations also raised the issue of the financial consequences, both direct like the use of preventive vaccination on animals, and indirect, like the marketing of products derived from vaccinated animals. With regard to this issue, some delegations asked for a new definition of tasks for the Veterinary Fund created by Council Decision 90/424/EEC which may entail part of the costs derived from the vaccination procedure, while others emphasised the need to limit the scope of Community expenditures to current tasks but accepted that indirect costs could be covered by market support measures; Commissioner BYRNE stressed that there was no need to review Council Decision 90/424/EEC on expenditure in the veterinary field. �

• 2003/02/10 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• #2481
• 2003/01/27 Council Meeting
  • 2481
• 2002/12/13 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2002)0736 summary

    PURPOSE : to revise and improve legislation on EU measures to control outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). CONTENT : the EU measures for the control of FMD are currently laid down in Directive 85/511/EEC. The "non-vaccination policy" was introduced by Council Directive 90/423/EEC, which also specified requirements for contingency planning and antigen stocks for the production of vaccines for emergency vaccination. In order to protect livestock against infection, it also made modifications to the conditions for intra-EU trade and imports from third countries of susceptible animals and animal products, such as milk and meat. The proposal for a new FMD Directive is based on the experience with classical swine fever in 1997 and the application in 2001 of the current measures for FMD control as well as intensive stakeholder consultation, The proposal to amend Directive 92/46/EEC outlines procedures on how to recover "free of FMD without vaccination status", which is of crucial importance for trade. The present proposal, although its preparation started well before the events of 2001, is therefore also a consequence of the lessons learned during this crisis. However, due to the nature of this disease, there is no perfect solution which could fully accommodate all of the economic, environmental and the ethical desires of civil society and therefore this proposal can only present the best currently available compromise. The structure of the proposal is to follow the sequence of events should an outbreak occur and contains in its final part the measures to be take in order to prepare for an outbreak. As soon as the presence of the disease is suspected rapid action must be taken so that immediate and effective control measures can be implemented once its presence is confirmed. In addition, this proposal, for the first time since 1992, gives emergency vaccination a central role in tackling an outbreak. However, the proposal does not change the current policy banning prophylactic vaccination. Laboratory tests are now available to differentiate between vaccinated herds and those infected by the virus. In line with OIE requirements, the proposal details the procedure for how to recover "free of FMD without vaccination" status - the best animal health standard in relation to FMD- within 6 months of the last outbreak or completion of vaccination, whichever occurs last. This revised and more flexible procedure is to be used by a country that used emergency vaccination in combination with eradication of infected herds and post-vaccination surveillance testing. Moreover, the proposal adds detailed provisions for placing on the market of products derived from animals of susceptible species, such as meat and milk products, in the case of an outbreak. The draft law also provides for "regionalisation", limiting restrictions to the particular regions of a Member State that are affected by an outbreak. The draft Directive outlines the measures to be taken in order to prepare for an outbreak. The main new elements are: - Veterinary services will be empowered to establish suspect restriction zones and to impose a temporary movement ban on large parts of affected Member States. - The control strategy combines measures to deal with infectedanimals that have been subject to emergency vaccination. Detailed rules are laid down for how to treat and use products such as milk and meat from animals under restriction and from vaccinated animals. These products are not dangerous to humans; - Provisions are made for diagnostic facilities, in particular a Community Reference Laboratory, including a bank for diagnostic reagents, test kits, etc; - Detailed provisions are laid down for the management of the European antigen bank and for access to this bank by Member States and, where required, third countries. Specific rules are laid down for the confidential treatment of information on the quantities and strains of antigens stored at the bank; - Emphasis is put on preparation of contingency plans, including the preparation for a "worst case" scenario. Contingency plans have to be regularly updated in the light of the results of alert exercises.�

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/index_en.htm', 'title': 'Health and Consumers'}],

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2002)0736
• Debate in Council: 2481
• Debate in Council: 2500
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A5-0141/2003
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0215/2003
• : Directive 2003/85
• : OJ L 306 22.11.2003, p. 0001-0087

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)