EU warns Russia on meat ban after Romanian, Bulgarian EU entry
Brussels (dpa) - The European Union on Thursday warned Russia against plans to ban meat imports from the entire 25-nation bloc as of January 1, 2007 in a bid to keep out exports from Romania and Bulgaria which join the EU on New Year's Day.
The European Commission - the EU's executive arm - also denounced Russian efforts to clinch food security deals with individual EU states which would allow such imports to take place from specific countries.
"We have told the Russians this is unacceptable and that they should be talking to the EU as a whole," said EU spokesman Philip Tod.
Tod said that although several EU countries including Germany, had been approached to sign such an agreement, no government had as yet taken up the offer.
"EU countries have agreed to coordinate their positions," the spokesman said, adding that the commission had reminded Russia and EU states that such bilateral agreements would not be in line with the bloc's policy.
"There is also the political question of whether this would be wise," said Tod, adding: "The EU is stronger when it puts up a united front."
Russia's chief vet Sergei Dankvert said earlier this week that Moscow was set to ban meat imports from the entire EU because of concerns over the safety of meat from Bulgaria and Romania given the countries' lax food safety standards.
That threat, coming on the eve of an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki, supplemented an existing Moscow-Warsaw spat over a ban on Polish animal products.
As a result, Poland held up EU plans to open negotiations on a new cooperation pact with Russia.
The commission also said earlier this week that it would allow the import of meat only from Bulgarian and Romanian farms that already have permission to export into the union.
Russia imports about 2 billion US dollars (1.5 billion euros) in meat from the EU each year. // © 2006 DPA
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