Key EU reforms passed in 2004 to raise food production safety standards were never extended to the ten eastern and southern European countries that joined the bloc that year.
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Some of these states were made subject to temporary special export controls on selling food into Western Europe.
However, legal documents obtained by just-food show these new member countries were never incorporated into the EU’s farm-to-fork food health regulation EC/882/2004.
The law lays down tough standards on the quality of food production health inspections, and was introduced, according to a UK government briefing note, to “improve the consistency and effectiveness of controls across the EU and, as a consequence, raise standards of food safety and consumer protection”.
The European Commission is now proposing – four years later – that these new member states are now covered by the regulation, along with Bulgaria and Romania, who joined last year.
Brussels’ catch-up amendment declares: “The regulation was adopted on April 30, 2004, before the accession of new member states. [It] has not yet been amended to include those new member states.”
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By GlobalDataOfficials at the Commission were unavailable for comment when contacted by just-food.
