Joint answer given by Mr Borg on behalf of the Commission
Written questions :E-003089/13 , E-003327/13

8.5.2013

Mexican and Canadian authorities provide every year a residue monitoring plan together with the results of the implementation of the previous year programme. This plan includes the verification of the use of substances banned by the Union legislation and the measures in place to assure that the meat exported to the EU does not contain any residues thereof, in accordance to the relevant provisions. Furthermore, horse meat coming from Mexico is already subject to a safeguard measure since 2006 whereby every exported consignment is tested for residues of veterinary substances at the Border Inspection Posts (BIPs) before entering EU territory, while consignments of horse meat from Canada are also randomly sampled at BIPs for the same substances.

Following the latest audits of the Food and Veterinary Office of the Commission’s Health and Consumers Directorate General (FVO) in Mexico and Canada on horse meat exports to the EU, the Commission services asked the respective competent authorities to submit an action plan in response to the recommendations made in the audit reports. The authorities of both countries have provided their respective action plan.

In the light of the outcome of those audits, the relevant action plan respectively provided by Mexico and Canada, the evaluation of their residues monitoring plan together with the results of the additional checks carried out by the Member States on the imported meat, including from Canada and Mexico, to detect possible residues of phenylbutazone (decided as a consequence of the recent horse meat related labelling fraud in the EU) the Commission is in the process of evaluating all possible actions to continue ensuring a satisfactory level of protection of consumers.

OJ C 11 E, 15/01/2014