REPORT on the proposal for a Council Decision amending Council Decision 93/383/EEC of 14 June 1993 on reference laboratories for the monitoring of marine biotoxins (COM(96)0464 - C4-0547/96 - 96/0234(CNS))

22 May 1997

Committee on Fisheries
Rapporteur: Mr Allan Macartney

By letter of 21 October 1996 the Council consulted Parliament, pursuant to Article 43 of the EC Treaty, on the proposal for a Council Decision amending Council Decision 93/383/EEC of 14 June 1993 on reference laboratories for the monitoring of marine biotoxins.

At the sitting of 23 October 1996 the President of Parliament announced that he had referred this proposal to the Committee on Fisheries as the committee responsible and the Committee on the

Environment , Public Health and Consumer Protection for its opinion.

At its meeting of 18-19 November 1996 the Committee on Fisheries appointed Mr Macartney rapporteur.

The Committee on Fisheries considered the Commission proposal and the draft report at its meetings of 25-26 November 1996, 20-21 January 1997, 21 April 1997 and 21-22 May 1997.

At the last meeting it adopted the draft legislative resolution unanimously.

The following were present for the vote: Fraga Estévez, chairman; Kindermann, vice-chairman; Macartney, vice-chairman and rapporteur; Langenhagen, Medina Ortega, Sonneveld (for Provan) and Varela Suanzes-Carpegna.

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection decided on 21 November 1996 not to deliver an opinion.

The report was tabled on 22 May 1997.

The deadline for tabling amendments will be indicated in the draft agenda for the relevant part-session.

A LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL - DRAFT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

Proposal for a Council Decision amending Council Decision 93/383/EEC of 14 June 1993 on reference laboratories for the monitoring of marine biotoxins (COM(96)0464 - C4-0547/96 - 96/0234(CNS))

The proposal is approved.

Legislative resolution embodying Parliament's opinion on the proposal for a Council Decision amending Council Decision 93/383/EEC of 14 June 1993 on reference laboratories for the monitoring of marine biotoxins (COM(96)0464 - C4-0547/96 - 96/0234(CNS))

(Consultation procedure)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission proposal to the Council, COM(96)0464 - 96/0234(CNS)[1],

- having been consulted by the Council pursuant to Article 43 of the EC Treaty (C4-0547/96),

- having regard to Rule 58 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Fisheries (A4-0177/97),

1. Approves the Commission proposal;

2. Calls on the Council to notify Parliament should it intend to depart from the text approved by Parliament;

3. Asks to be consulted again should the Council intend to make substantial modifications to the Commission proposal;

4. Instructs its President to forward this opinion to the Council and Commission.

• [1]  OJ C331, 6.11.1996, p. 12

B EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Introduction

Under the provisions of Directives 91/492 EEC and 91/493/EEC , which lay down the health conditions for the production and the placing on the market of live bivalve molluscs and fishery products, each Member State is required to designate a national reference laboratory, in particular for the monitoring of biotoxins.

The list of these national reference laboratories was established by Council Decision 93/383/EEC. However, no provision was made in the Decision for a simplified procedure, in the event of a change being sought to the list. The present Commission proposal aims, therefore, to amend the Decision to take account of a change in the UK reference laboratory and to ensure that future changes can be made on simple notification by the Member State concerned.

The Commission's proposal is logical and consistent with the need to simplify administrative procedures wherever possible and as such must be supported. However, since accordingly, this will be the last time that Parliament is consulted on such a change, it is perhaps worth making a number of comments.

Background

The reference laboratory designated by the British government in 1993 was the Torry Research Station, situated in Aberdeen in Scotland, but belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in London.

However, in 1995 the decision was taken, on cost-related grounds which are now under investigation by the Auditor General, that the laboratory should be closed and its functions and staff transferred elsewhere.

The relocation decision, if implemented as originally proposed , would have left Scotland without a laboratory to undertake vitally important food safety work for botulism, salmonella and E.Coli 0157.

Under severe pressure from the public and the scientific community in the North East of Scotland, the Government backed down and decided to disperse some of the work within Aberdeen. The section dealing with biotoxins, the subject of this proposal, was moved to the Marine Research Laboratory, Aberdeen. Other sections were transferred to other sites in the city such as the Rowett Research Institute, Robert Gordon's University and the Medical School of the University of Aberdeen, while the unit providing fisheries consultancy became a private company called Torry Research Ltd., headed by the former Director of the Research Station.

However, parts of the section dealing with microbiology and the section dealing with fish proteins were transferred to the Central Science Laboratory at Sand Hutton near York in England, while the section responsible for monitoring veterinary residues in fish was sent to the Food Science Laboratory in Norwich, also in England.

Comments

While it is correct that it should not be necessary for the European Parliament to produce reports on such decisions, this does not mean that they should be taken without adequate consultation.

The influence of the Torry Research Station , like similar facilities across Europe, is felt throughout the local community. In addition, the research teams made an important contribution to the multidisciplinary science base and academic life in the North East of Scotland, which is the centre of both the petroleum and the fishing industry in northern Europe.

Throughout the closure process, the UK Government failed to address concerns from the locality about breaking up expert teams of scientists, many of whom were the sole Scottish specialists in certain areas of food safety; and from Europe on disruption to jointly funded projects with the European Commission, which the Torry Research Station was the most successful within MAFF in attracting.

In the opinion delivered by the Economic and Social Committee (CES 1398/96), it is pointed out that this Commission proposal is consistent "with the principle of subsidiarity". In so far as the Treaty on European Union is concerned, this statement is technically correct. Under Article 3b, the Community can only act if the"proposed action cannot sufficiently be achieved by the Member States."

However, the UK government, which has so keenly supported subsidiarity in European affairs, believes that it is precisely at the Member State level that the principle should stop. Subsidiarity is all right as far as London, but no further.

Your rapporteur who also supports the principle of subsidiarity, would caution that centralising services in this way holds the potential to wreck any hope of maintaining and stimulating academic and scientific initiative and creativity throughout the university and research communities.

Therefore whilst supporting the principle of subsidiarity, it is worth stressing that decisions of this kind which disrupt people's jobs and lives, are not best taken in either Brussels or London, but as close as possible to those who are most affected - in this case the staff of the former Torry Research Station in Aberdeen.