Horse meat scandal stems from EU policy says UKIP MEP
8:20am Wednesday 20th February 2013 in North West
THE EU has made it easier for horse meat to enter the UK food chain, says regional MEP Paul Nuttall.
Speaking at the EU environment committee in Brussels Mr Nuttall said that the EU was primarily to blame because it has the competences for food labelling and safety.
“Food safety is an EU competence. Regulation EC no 178*2002 transfers the responsibility for food safety from London to Brussels and is a shared competence. This is further compounded by Regulation EC 854*2004.
“Prior to this in the UK we had some of the most stringent meat hygiene standards, primarily because of the BSE crisis in the 1990s.
“What the EU has done has shifted responsibility for food safety onto the producers rather than government agencies,” said Mr Nuttall, UKIP Euro-MP for the North West.
“In some cases, people find eating horse meat quite offensive.....To people in the UK in particular, it is offensive to eat horse.”
“The Single Market itself ensures that goods and services can cross borders with minimal monitoring, so I would like to make it clear here that EU competences should be handed back to the member states.
“What I do hope is that the Commission will not use this crisis to grab even more power for itself in Brussels and away from national democracies.” he concluded
