Enlargement 2004 - Food safety and consumer protection policy implications 

Accession country compliance with EU food safety legislation will be problematic and Commission officials will show no hesitation to use safeguard measures if necessary to respond to a food safety scare. They are also concerned about the enforcement of food and veterinary rules at the EU's new external borders and believe the new member states will have practically no chance to slow down food safety proposals still being legislated. On consumer protection more broadly, the main challenge will be to establish effective channels for consumer complaints and redress.

The Commission is clear that in the first years after enlargement it will have to use its safeguard clause to ban unsafe food products from the new member states on more than one occasion. "We will have to use safeguard measures in a limited number of areas," said one official. Another official warned: "We can take every product off every supermarket shelf in Europe if we want to."

The Commission stressed that there would inevitably be problems after accession and that politically the Commission would have no choice but to take firm action. Officials say that new members simply do not appreciate the high political sensitivity of public health issues in the wake of the BSE and dioxin crises. They warn that the vast swathe of new rules and regulations agreed in recent years will be very hard for the new countries to implement.

Despite massive efforts made over recent years by the candidate countries to improve food safety standards, officials predict that huge numbers of meat processing facilities will have to be closed as the investment needed to bring them up to EU levels is simply not available. Hundreds of slaughter houses will be forced to shut within two years despite the potential major economic impact in some regions.

The Commission believes that the countries most at risk are Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, not least because of the large numbers of animals they export to the current EU members, a trend expected to accelerate next year.

While the Commission might hesitate to take corrective action in some areas of the internal market, officials say they will have no hesitation in this field given the public sensitivity to health scares. "The Commission can't not act if there is a situation in Poland which is making Germans ill," said one official.

Because the Commission has been very tough in responding to food scares in the past, it will not hesitate politically to react decisively. "The Commission has a credible track record on food safety. No-one could accuse us of being beastly," said one interviewee.

There is concern that candidate countries do not appreciate the sensitivity of food safety in the post-BSE era and, as one official put it "how tough we will be once they join."

Problems with border control posts

Officials warn that new members face major challenges in bringing up to standard the seventy new border control posts through which animals and food products will be imported into the EU as the Union's borders move east and southwards. "The Food and Veterinary Office inspectors say the situation is very bad," according to one interviewee.

Most food safety legislation already in place

New members are expected to find it very hard to meet the high standards of food safety set out in more than ninety pieces of legislation agreed over the last few years. "I fear the new member states don't understand how much more stringent the new legislation is becoming," one official warned.

The Commission points out the difficulties the existing EU member states have faced in convincing their industries to bring standards up to the current, very high levels. Accession countries have had next to no input o n the new rules and officials think that the new members will have little impact on the few regulations that will still be on the table after accession. In particular, the Food Hygiene Regulation could be agreed in first reading, ensuring that it is wrapped up before the end of the current European Parliament term in May 2004. Meanwhile the new rules on food and feed controls, a key piece of legislation because it sets out in great detail the responsibilities of national authorities, will not be agreed before EU enlargement. Nevertheless, the scope for new members to influence these rules will be limited because the first reading in the European Parliament will have set the main outlines of the final deal.

Looking to future new legislation, such as on nutritional and health claims, officials doubt that the new member states will have a major impact. This is because these rules will affect very highend food products which are mainly produced in the existing 15 EU countries.

Consumer policy

Officials agree that the challenge for new members on consumer policy is not in terms of legislation and implementation - though the countries need to develop effective channels for consumer complaints and redress rather than going to the courts. Instead, the candidate countries need to develop a consumer culture. Voluntary sectors and consumer groups should raise expectations and make demands about product quality and consumer service, say officials.

Read the complete report, entitled

Enlargement 2004 - Big Bang and Aftershocks