New EU proposal 'severely weakens' import control to prevent black spot disease

European agricultural cooperative Copa and Cogeca have today slammed a new EU Commission proposal which severely weakens import controls to prevent black spot disease in citrus fruit coming into Europe, warning its unacceptable.

The cooperative warn its "totally unacceptable" given that over 100 cases of the highly contagious diseases have been detected at borders.

The controversial proposal is being debated by the EU Standing Committee in Brussels today and tomorrow.

Yet figures show that as many as 70 cases have been detected from Uruguay, 15 from South Africa, 17 from Argentina and 13 from Brazil.

This far exceeds the EU Commissions permissible limit of 5 fixed by the EU Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as set out in EC Decision 2014/422.

Copa- Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen warned: "We urge Member States to reject this proposal outright on three accounts.

"First it proposes letting contaminated citrus fruit from entering the EU for use in processing.

"Secondly, the Commission has proposed to delete its decision vis a vis ensuring that controls are stepped up after the 6th interception in the same year, despite advice from EFSA.

"Thirdly, implementation of safeguard measures for Uruguay will start only from 1st January 2017 when 70 cases were already intercepted at borders from Uruguay in 2015".

He continued: "Unless the EU Commission puts in place tough measures to prevent the spread of the contagious disease, there is a real risk it will enter the EU.

"This is unacceptable given that black Spot is a disease that is not present in Europe and its presence could have serious consequences on the citrus sector in producer countries.

"The EU citrus fruit sector is crucial both from an economic and social point of view.

"It provides the EU with high quality produce, at the same time as ensuring employment for millions of people in EU rural areas, both upstream and downstream, especially in southern countries.

"It puts at stake 600, 000 ha and 5000, 000 tonnes of produce. We cannot take the risk of importing the disease.

"The impact would be disastrous for EU citrus fruit producers. The proposals must be revised", he said