EU says new member states meet food standards

The 10 mainly ex-communist states in central and eastern Europe have been repeatedly warned in recent months that they were lagging behind EU standards in hygiene and food safety at meat processing plants and elsewhere.

Failure to correct this could have led the bloc to apply "safeguard measures", for example barring them from exporting food freely across the EU -- a primary aim of membership.

But Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said such restrictions would not be needed.

"The Commission is now confident that food safety legislation will be satisfactorily applied from accession, and that it will not be necessary to apply safeguard measures...as foreseen at some point," he told EU foreign ministers.

Food safety and hygiene, as well as failure to set up bodies to disburse funds to new member states under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, were the two main areas where the bloc's executive Commission feared new members would miss the deadline.

Verheugen said their transformation in other areas to reach membership standards had been "nothing short of remarkable."

Despite his confidence in their readiness, Verheugen said Commission inspections would continue in new member states -- as they do in the 15 current member states -- to make sure EU membership rules were being observed.

He added the Commission could return and apply safeguard measures if necessary during the three years after accession.

"We can now look forward to a European Union that will continue to function well after May 1," he added.




Source: Reuters