Translated material
Partnership to the core
Russia proposed that the European Union jointly inspect Polish meat processing plants
The European Union was unable to convince Rosselkhoznadzor of the excellent quality of meat exported from Poland to the Russian market. True, the Russian department, which virtually paralyzed the entire negotiation process on a new strategic agreement between Russia and the European Union with its ban on the import of meat from Poland, agreed to joint inspections of Polish meat processing enterprises with specialists from EU countries.Last week, Rosselkhoznadzor received documents from the European Commission containing answers to questions posed to EU specialists after inspections of Polish meat processing plants and Poland’s control system over the quality of exported products. They concern measures to ensure the safety of supplies, compliance with the norms and requirements of Russian veterinary legislation.
As is known, at the negotiations between the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Alexei Gordeev and the European Commissioner for Health, Veterinary Medicine and Consumer Protection Marcos Kyprianou, held in mid-January in Berlin, an agreement was reached that Russia would continue negotiations on the supply of Polish meat and other meat to the country. agricultural products not with Warsaw, but with the European Commission. However, these negotiations, which took place on March 12-13, ended without results. After which Rosselkhoznadzor asked the EU to submit, within two weeks, materials from inspections of Polish meat processing enterprises carried out by specialists from the European Commission.
After a preliminary study of the materials received from the European Commission, the Russian department concluded that it was necessary to conduct repeated, now joint, inspections of meat processing enterprises in Poland. “As a result of these checks, a document should be prepared that will become the basis for making further decisions on supplies,” said the head of Rosselkhoznadzor, Sergei Dankvert.
Regarding mutual requirements for the provision of reports for 2006 and state plans for 2007 to control residual amounts of harmful substances in exported products of animal origin, Mr. Dankvert said that Rosselkhoznadzor and the European Commission exchanged similar documents. At the same time, the European side, according to Sergei Dankvert, has not yet submitted a report on phytosanitary issues.
The European Commission denies these claims from the Russian side. “All questions raised by Russia regarding the import of meat and plant products from Poland have been answered.” This was stated by the representative office of the European Commission in Moscow. “The measures taken by the commission should contribute to the lifting of the ban on imports of these types of products into Russia,” the representative of the European Commission emphasized. “We hope that ongoing consultations between the EU and Russia will lead to an early lifting of the embargo imposed by Moscow.”
It is expected that the next meeting of the European Commissioner for Health, Veterinary Medicine and Consumer Protection Marcos Kyprianou with the Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev will take place in mid-April. It will again discuss the development of relations between the Russian Federation and the EU in the field of sanitary and phytosanitary standards.
Russia in November 2005 imposed an embargo on the supply of meat and vegetables from Poland due to suspicions that it was re-exporting these products from countries with phytosanitary and veterinary risks. On the eve of the Russia-EU summit in Helsinki in November 2006, Poland vetoed the start of negotiations on a new agreement between Russia and the European Union. As a precondition for agreeing to negotiations (such consent must be given by all EU member countries), Warsaw demanded that Russia lift the ban on the import of Polish meat and vegetables. Russian-Polish negotiations on resuming supplies of meat and other agricultural products have not yielded results.
The European Commission's response to Rosselkhoznadzor's proposal on joint inspections is expected any day now. The Russian department believes that “the Europeans themselves will find a common language with Polish veterinarians, because this is in the interests of everyone.”