Commission bends to US pressure on chlorinated chicken

摘要

The European Commission agreed, on 13 May, at the Transatlantic Economic Council, to work out a solution to the dispute between the EU and the United States over the use of certain chemical substances to disinfect chicken. In spite of the opposition of Europe's Agriculture and Health Commissioners, Mariann Fischer Boel and Androulla Vassiliou, the Commission is expected to adopt, by the end of May, a draft text that could open the EU's gates to chlorinated chicken, at least for two years, the time needed to carry out further scientific studies. Given the member states' virulent opposition to this practice, however, which goes against hygiene and prevention rules in force in the EU, the odds are that it will be very hard for the proposal to win the backing of a majority of member states when put to the vote. At this stage, a vote appears possible in the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, at its session on 15 and 16 July.