Farm Money, and Health Checks on Feed and Food
- March 14th, 2007
- Posted by 7thmin
Two announcements from the European Commission this week (13.3.07) promise detailed disclosures on farm support, and upgraded controls on disease and contamination.
- Latest direct farm payments have been announced, the European Commission saying that these include the impact of changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the arrival of two new countries in the EU membership.
It says that in the interests of transparency such disclosures of information on payments will take place on a regular basis.
Media release from the EC, 13.3.07:
Commission publishes indicative figures on the distribution of direct farm aid in 2005
The European Commission has made public indicative figures on the distribution of direct farm payments by size-class of aid received for the Financial Year 2005. The figures have been derived from the EAGGF (European Agricultural Guarantee and Guidance Fund) payment data received from the Member States. For the first time, new Member States are also included and the figures also reflect the situation after the CAP reforms of 2003 and 2004, which entered into force from 2005 onwards. These figures must also be regarded as purely indicative. Figures for 2002, 2003 and 2004 were made public earlier. The Commission will continue to publish such aggregated figures on a regular basis in the future.
The figures are available on the internet at: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/funding/index_en.htm
- The European Union has expanded its ability to test for contaminants in animal feed and human foodstuffs, responding to crises in recent years, with such problems as “mad cow” disease.
It will be opening three new laboratories at its central testing complex in Brussels.
Media release:
Inauguration of three new Community Reference Laboratories for food and feed testing
European Commissioner for Health Markos Kyprianou will officially inaugurate three new Community Reference Laboratories (CRLs) at the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements of its Joint Research Centre in Geel, Belgium – Friday 16.3.07. Following food safety crises including BSE and the dioxin contamination, EU food law was substantially reformed and as part of this a system of specialised CRLs has been created, cooperating closely with their national counterparts. The CRLs are analytical laboratories designated by Community legislation and form an integral part of the European risk management system. The new CRLs in Geel, Belgium, deal with testing of heavy metals, mycotoxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in food and animal feed. Substances in these three groups can cause cancer and other serious illnesses or damage the central nervous system. Therefore their contents in food and feed are regulated by European legislation.