July 21, 2010

European Commission criticised over delay in Brazilian beef ban

The European Commission should have acted faster to restrict imports of Brazilian beef after identifying a risk of foot-and-mouth disease from the country in late 2007, the bloc's chief watchdog said on Tuesday (Jul 20).

However, the Commission was right not to heed calls for a blanket ban on beef imports from Brazil once the failings in the country's animal disease control systems were discovered, said P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, the European Ombudsman, who acts as an intermediary between the citizen and the EU authorities.

Diamandouros criticised the Commission for "allowing into the EU Brazilian beef imports from 10,000 unapproved farms between February and March 2008." Restrictions imposed in the middle of March 2008 meant that only 412 approved Brazilian cattle farms were allowed to export to the EU.

However, Diamandouros rejected a call from a federation of British and Irish farm organisations that the Commission should have imposed a complete ban on Brazilian beef as from 2007.

Brazil is the world's top beef exporter, but parts of the country are affected by foot-and-mouth (FMD) - a highly contagious viral disease that affects cows and other cloven-hoofed animals.

The EU is currently free from FMD, but remains at risk from occasional outbreaks, according to the bloc's food safety agency, such as the one that struck Britain in 2007.

The Commission should continue its regular inspections in Brazil and elsewhere outside the EU to ensure that all exports meet the necessary animal and public health standards, Diamandouros said.