Europe Agri articles from May 2009

Europe Agri archives from May 2009

RESEARCH : AGREEMENT ON ALTERNATIVES TO ANIMAL TESTING.
May 15, 2009... An international scientific agreement on validation of alternatives to animal testing was signed, on 27 April, by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) - which is part of the European Commission's Joint Research...

AID IN BEEF AND VEAL SECTOR.
May 15, 2009... The Europan Comission launched, on 13 May, a call for tender for a project entitled Evaluation of direct aid in the beef and veal sector' and applied since the entering into force of the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy reform, in particular...

AQUACULTURE: INFRINGEMENTS BY MEMBER STATES.
May 15, 2009... The European Commission has decided to refer Austria, Belgium and Portugal to the EU Court of Justice for failure to comply with Directive 2006/88/EC on animal health requirements for aquaculture animals and products, and the prevention and...

FISHERIES POLICY : COMMISSION PLANS TO CHANGE RULES ON TACS.
May 15, 2009... Total allowable catches (TACs) are systematically set at levels that are too high to enable fish stocks to recover, leading to overexploitation of stocks. The finding is not new, but the European Commission plans to change its tack by amending...

FISHERIES : COMMISSION REQUESTS NEGOTIATING MANDATES.
May 15, 2009... The European Commission, which negotiates international fisheries agreements on behalf of the European Union, presented two requests for negotiating mandates to the Council, on 5 May. The first is for entitlement to negotiate salmon protection...

EU/US : DEAL ON HORMONE-TREATED BEEF DIVIDES EU PRODUCERS AND INDUSTRY.
May 15, 2009... The European Union did not negotiate a good deal, on 6 May, with the United States on the issue of hormone-treated beef, according to European agricultural organisations. They claim the 'EU is offering upwards of 400 million worth of market...

RESEARCH : EFPIA CAUTIOUSLY WELCOMES EP VOTE ON WELFARE OF LAB ANIMALS.
May 15, 2009... The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) believes that the report on the welfare of laboratory animals, adopted on 5 May by the European Parliament (first reading), is a compromise between scientific...

EU/RUSSIA : FISHERIES COOPERATION AGREEMENT NOW OFFICIAL.
May 15, 2009... Initialled in 2006, the EU-Russia agreement on cooperation in fisheries and the conservation of marine resources in the Baltic Sea was finally made official, on 28 April in Brussels. It was signed by Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg and...

MEAT : FLU EPIDEMIC WORRIES AILING PORK SECTOR.
May 15, 2009... The European pork sector, which has already been suffering from sluggish sales for several months, now fears the disastrous consequences of the likely disaffection of consumers regarding pork meat due to the flu epidemic - known as swine flu'...

FOOD LABELLING: ITALY REFERRED TO ECJ.
May 15, 2009... The European Commission decided, on 14 May, to refer Italy to the EU Court of Justice over its failure to notify national implementing measures as required by Directive 2007/68/EC establishing a list of food ingredients that must be indicated...

INQUIRY INTO AID TO HUNGARIAN FERTILISER PRODUCER.
May 15, 2009... The European Commission opened, on 29 April, an in-depth inquiry into aid granted by the Hungarian authorities, but not notified to the Commission, in favour of Hungarian fertiliser producer Peti Nitrogenm vek. This concerns guarantees on an...

MARITIME POLICY : JOE BORG CALLS FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE OF OCEANS.
May 15, 2009... No region of the world has been spared by today's economic, financial and political turmoil, which makes closer international cooperation more necessary than ever. The oceans are doubtless one area where such cooperation is crucial. "Progress...

MEXICAN FLU : MEPS SLAM COUNCIL'S LAID-BACK ATTITUDE.
May 15, 2009... MEPs are critical of the Council's slow handling of the Mexican flu crisis. During a debate at the European Parliament, on 4 May in Strasbourg, Dutch MEP Jules Maaten, the spokesperson for the ALDE group, said that he "deeply regretted" the way...

HEALTH COUNCIL : MEXICAN FLU: EU PONDERS TRAVEL BAN.
May 15, 2009... An EU wide ban on travel to Mexico was not likely not be adopted by the health ministers, who were holding a meeting, on 30 April, to discuss the state of play of the measures in the member states to combat the Mexican flu'. They also...

EU/CANADA : OTTAWA TO DEFEND SEAL HUNT BEFORE WTO.
May 15, 2009... The Canadian government has expressed its "deep disappointment, concern and opposition" following the adoption by the European Parliament, on 5 May, of a regulation establishing a ban on the trade and sale of products from Canada's seal hunt....

TRADE POLICY : SEAL PRODUCTS TO BE BANNED ON EUROPEAN MARKET.
May 15, 2009... The European Parliament confirmed by an overwhelming majority (543 to 56), at first reading on 5 May, the agreement reached on 31 March with the Council to ban the import and marketing of seal products on EU territory. The European Commission...

ENVIRONMENT : SEVEN PRIORITIES FOR SAVING BIODIVERSITY.
May 15, 2009... The European Union is still a long way from achieving its objective of halting biodiversity loss by 2010. At the conference on this subject, on 27 and 28 April in Athens, the European Commission pointed out that saving biodiversity means saving...

FLU PANDEMIC : VETERINARY EXPERTS REMAIN CAUTIOUS ON ROLE OF PIGS IN OUTBREAK.
May 15, 2009... Although EU veterinary experts do not see any justification for the restrictions on trade in pigs imposed by many countries around the world, they are nevertheless convinced that pig farmers in the Union must take precautions against viral...