Commission Midday Express, 27 April 2004
The European Commission adopted today a report on the implementation of Council and European Parliament Regulation (EC) n° 1760/2000 which had introduced rules to ensure origin labelling reliability by the application of a global traceability system, based on national individual bovine identification systems and beef traceability requirements applicable from the slaughterhouse to the point of sale to the consumer. The beef labelling report is based on inspection reports of Commission's Food and Veterinary Office performed in 2002-2003 in all Member States. It assesses the current implementation of the beef labelling legislation for EU produced and imported beef. It identifies strong and weak points and elaborates recommendations to improve its application at various levels of the beef processing chain. Furthermore the report examines the possibility to extend the legislation scope to other beef products (beef processed products) and to other sectors (catering businesses and restaurants). The beef labelling report will be examined by the Council and the Parliament in the coming months.
The full report will appear later today at the following web address: http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/publi/reports/beeflabel/index_en.htm