BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The European Union wants to tighten controls on imported food in order to better detect residues of particularly dangerous pesticides that are banned in the EU. If these pesticides are not approved in the EU for health reasons, they should not be found as residues in our food, said EU Health Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi in Brussels.
This is intended to protect both consumers in the EU from these substances and European farmers from competitive disadvantages, according to the Hungarian commissioner. When asked whether there were cases in which dangerous goods had entered the EU, Varhelyi said that the aim was to enforce existing regulations.
The commissioner also emphasized that this measure was not related to the EU's agreement with the Latin American trade bloc Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay). However, the announcement comes at a time when efforts to ratify the free trade agreement, which has been under negotiation for over two decades, are intensifying. Farmers are very critical of the agreement and have announced protests in Brussels for next week.
