EU ombudsman critical of EC for failure to ban Brazilian beef

THE EU’s public service watchdog has criticised the European Commission over its delay in banning beef imports into the EU from Brazil, despite having evidence that it posed a risk.

The EU ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, has partially upheld a complaint by farming organisations in Ireland and Britain that the Commission failed to act reasonably and proportionately to deal with the threat to both public and animal health by Brazilian beef imports.

The complaint was made by Fairness for Farmers in Europe — an umbrella group of 30 farming groups, including the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association and the Irish Creamery and Milk Suppliers Association.

The group accused the Commission of refraining from banning beef imports from Brazil, notwithstanding evidence that they posed a risk to human and animal health because of the potential of meat coming from animals infected with highly contagious foot and mouth disease.

It claimed the Commission had been negligent and incompetent by not acting in accordance with established and accepted standards of international and EU law. It also maintained that the Commission had relied on advice from the European Food Safety Authority but ignored evidence provided by the EU Food and Veterinary Office.

The Commission held that while certain shortcomings in Brazilian beef had been identified during an inspection by the EU Food and Veterinary Office in March 2007, they did not justify an immediate ban. Instead, the Commission chose to carry out additional checks. The ombudsman concluded that given the information available to the Commission at the time that its position was not “manifestly incorrect”.

However, Mr Diamandouros upheld a separate complaint by the farmers’ group that the Commission still decided against banning beef imports after another mission to Brazil in November 2007 by the Food and Veterinary Office had identified “serious inadequacies”.

Instead, the Commission imposed a number of special conditions which required the Brazilian authorities to implement a system of approved cattle holdings which would create a “closed system” for exports to the EU.

The Ombudsman ruled that there was a “manifest error” by the Commission not to impose a full ban in such circumstances, although it did not constitute maladministration.

Mr Diamandouros found that the Commission failed to adequately justify why it permitted imports of consignments of beef from Brazil between February 1, 2008, and March 15, 2008, when all holdings from where the beef came had not been audited or inspected in accordance with EU requirements.

The Ombudsman also recommended the Commission should continue regular missions to third countries to carry out systematic checks on imports. However, he rejected the claim that the Commission should impose a ban on the importation of Brazilian beef.