Commission ‘reacted late’ to risks from Brazilian beef imports

BRUSSELS has been criticised by European Ombudsman P Nikiforos Diamandouros for not acting quickly enough to restrict Brazilian beef imports in 2008 in order to deal with risks from foot and mouth disease.

However, he rejected a call from a federation of British and Irish farm organisations that the Commission should have imposed a complete ban on Brazilian beef from a year earlier.

The Commission explained deficiencies had been identified in the Brazilian beef control systems in November 2007. As a consequence, it imposed stringent import restrictions, but considered an outright ban to be unnecessary.