Report on a meeting with Dr. Schnellhardt, MEP (Group of the European People's Party [Christian Democrats] and European Democrats),
in matters of a
“Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation No 11 concerning the abolition of discrimination in transport rates and conditions, in implementation of Article 79 (3) of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community and Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and the Council on the hygiene of foodstuffs”,
Brussels, October 17th 2007
Participants:
Dr. Schnellhardt, his assistant Mr. Olma,
Mr. Jos Klessens and Mr. Rainer Weidmann
The above mentioned proposal foresees to exempt small enterprises with less than 10 employees and an annual turnover of not more than 2 millions Euros from the requirements of HACCP pursuant to Article 5 paragraph 1 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. On behalf of UECBV Mr. Klessens and Mr. Weidmann expressed their concerns about these ideas. Applying HACCP was basic for the functioning of the food safety rules as laid down in the hygiene package. Hygiene could not be divided. There were estimations saying that - regarding the whole EU – about 40% of the distribution of meat and meat products was done by trade handicraft i.e. small business. Accordingly a great deal of meat and meat products would be covered by shrinked hygiene provisions if the proposal would be realized. That would mean furthermore that the trust of the consumers in a homogenous EU hygiene system “from stable to table” could no longer be justified. The inevitable loss of trust would affect the whole business and therefore UECBV had the right to oppose vehemently to these proposals.
Mr. Schnellhardt explained that the proposal was borne in Commissioner Verheugen’s office with view to the intention to liberate small business from bureaucratic fetters as small business is still nowadays the main employer in the EU. Mr. Schnellhardt said that there wasn’t existing a fixed position of the European Parliament yet in the question of an amendment of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 but that there was a tendency not to follow Commissioner Verheugen’s ideas. Because of that he said to be very glad to hear from UECBV arguments against an amendment.
Mr. Klessens and Mr. Weidmann presented a leaflet of an international publishing-house to Mr. Schnellhardt. There was written that the publishing-house had been awarded with to silver medals for a tutorial (a book and a video compact disk) with the title “HACCP in 30 minutes”. Mr. Schnellhardt agreed that HACCP was rejected by politicians and representatives of certain business groups without really knowing what they are talking about. He said it would be necessary to communicate what HACCP is.
Mr. Schnellhardt was surprised to hear from Mr. Klessens and Mr. Weidmann that the Dutch and the German butchers organisations had developed already a long time ago HACCP concepts for craftsmen.
Mr. Schnellhardt said that he personally believed that the best way of treating the whole matter would be to gain time and to set right during this time what HACCP is and that it is fulfil able for everybody. He expressed his hope that the discussion then could be forgotten in two years time.
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