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The EU Commission and the EUA publish comprehensive information on the (agricultural) industrial pollution of your environment
At the end of February, the European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA) gave the go-ahead for the European Pollutant Emissions Register (EPER), which for the first time records across Europe how high the pollution of air and water is by industry. For the first time, detailed information about the pollutant emissions from a good 10.000 large industrial plants, including large animal holdings in the EU and Norway, is publicly available on the Internet.
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David Byrne, European Commissioner responsible for health and consumer protection, welcomed today's vote in the European Parliament in favor of the new EU regulation on official food and feed controls. “This regulation will significantly improve our control over the food and feed chain and enable us to make food even safer for consumers in Europe. It will also make it possible to check that animal health and welfare rules are being followed. It streamlines and strengthens the existing control systems and gives the Commission new tools to ensure a high level of food safety across the EU, "said Commissioner Byrne. The proposed new regulation will improve the efficiency of inspection services by both Member States and the Commission, provide a framework for helping developing countries comply with EU import requirements and allow the Commission to fund measures to promote food and feed safety. Parliament's assent today also includes a number of amendments to the regulation that were informally agreed with the Council. The final adoption of the regulation will take place in the next few weeks, with the new rule coming into force on 2003 January 03.
Opinion polls carried out on behalf of the Commission1 show that 90% of consumers in the EU want the Commission to “ensure that agricultural products are healthy and safe. The regulation on food and feed controls, one of the measures announced in the White Paper on food safety, serves this purpose.
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Summary of the meeting of February 24, 2004 in Brussels
The new President of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, Minister Joe Walsh, set out the priorities of the Irish Presidency's work program at the beginning of the Council. The focus of the conference was on the presidency's progress report on the amendment to the animal transport directive and the remarks by Commissioner Fischler on the EU action plan on organic food and organic farming. Federal Minister Künast informed the Council about which elements of the Commission's guidelines on coexistence with GMOs were taken up in the draft of the German Genetic Engineering Act. Commissioner Fischler explained the Commission's communication on the financial perspective 2007-2013. Furthermore, after a brief discussion, the Council adopted the regulation on Community tariff quotas for certain fishery products. The Greek minister informed about the effects of the particularly harsh winter in Greece on domestic agriculture. I. Presidency work program
When explaining the priorities of the work program for the first half of 1, the new Irish Presidency emphasized that it wanted to reach agreement on the 2004nd package of proposals for CAP reform (olive oil, tobacco, cotton, hops) as early as possible in the forthcoming Council. The treatment of the proposed reforms in sugar, fruit and vegetables and the rural development regulation depends on when the Commission proposals are presented.
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Don't panic among consumers
Like Canada before, the USA had to cope with a BSE crisis at the end of 2003. On December 23, a cow in Washington state tested positive for BSE. As a result, almost all export markets for beef collapsed due to import restrictions. Now the domestic market has to absorb the increasing domestic supply. However, there is no sign of a BSE panic among consumers. The beef consumption is stable.
Since the late 90s, the United States has been the largest beef exporter in the world in terms of commercial value. In terms of volume, only Australia exceeded US export volumes. When the BSE case became known, all important sales markets were suddenly closed. Only Canada's market remained open to the US, albeit with major restrictions: Canadians only import boneless meat from animals that are younger than 30 months.
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Sluggish sales in February
Sales of turkey meat on the German market have been extremely sluggish in the past weeks of February, so now in March special offers on the storefront are supposed to stimulate demand. Consumers should take advantage of the special offers, because with an average kilo price of around eight euros, fresh turkey schnitzel is currently around half a euro more expensive than in the previous year. In the offer, special prices of 5,99 euros per kilogram should not be uncommon.
For the first time in years, German turkey production did not grow any further in 2003. According to preliminary calculations, it is likely to have remained stable at the high level of the previous year at a good 350.000 tons. In other important EU producing countries, however, turkey production has been cut back due to unsatisfactory revenues, especially in France and Italy. This means that the total supply in the European Union is likely to have fallen to 1,69 million tons of turkey meat last year, after having reached its highest level to date with 1,84 million tons in 2002 and 1,90 million tons in 2001.
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In the meat wholesale markets there was little price movement for beef when the market situation was balanced. Veal was partly quiet, partly lively. The prices were stable to firm. As a result of the higher demands due to the purchase, the demand for pork stalled. The interest in poultry meat remains within the usual seasonal framework. Cattle and meat
In the meat wholesale markets there was little price movement for beef when the market situation was balanced. Sales of beef picked up slightly due to sales promotions; the trade concentrated on roulade and steak meat, cuts for minced meat production and soup meat. At the slaughterhouse level, there was a noticeably more restrained supply of young bulls for sale after a number of slaughterhouses had previously announced price discounts for male slaughter cattle. These were often withdrawn, and not infrequently there were even slight surcharges. The federal budget for young bulls in class R3 rose by two cents to 2,53 euros per kilogram of slaughter weight. The prices for cows for slaughter rose across the board, as the supply of female slaughter animals was very limited and could easily be placed on the market. In the federal average, slaughter cows O3 brought in three cents more than before at 1,63 euros per kilogram. When shipping beef to neighboring countries, German suppliers usually demand higher prices due to developments on the domestic market. These could best be enforced in trade with France. - In the coming week, the prices for young bulls should at least tend to be stable. For the scarce supply of female slaughter animals, the producers may achieve a little more. - Veal was sometimes quiet, sometimes lively. The prices were stable to firm. For lump-sum slaughtered calves, the providers received a federal average of 4,44 euros per kilogram of slaughter weight, five cents more than in the previous week. - Farm calves brought stable to fixed prices.
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Current BGH judgment on direct approach
The practice of personnel consultants to telephone employees of a company at their workplace to arouse interest in a job change is not subject to any fundamental competition law concerns. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) yesterday in Karlsruhe (judgment of March 4, 2004 - I ZR 221/01). The Vice President of the Federal Association of German Management Consultants BDU eV, Dr. Joachim Staude, and the chairman of the BDU Personnel Consulting Association, Dr. Wolfgang Lichius, expressly welcome the judgment "as a long overdue clarification".
The Federal Court of Justice thus confirms the prevailing case law on the so-called direct approach. After that, recruitment consultants are allowed to call candidates about a job offer. In doing so, they have to limit themselves to an initial contact, clarify the specific interests of the person called and may only offer further discussions outside of working hours. Vice-President Staude: "The decision of the BGH is in line with the demands and the position of the BDU."
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The Federation for Food Law and Food Science eV (BLL) has under Prof. Dr. Thomas von Danwitz, DIAP (ENA, Paris), Chair of Public Law and European Law at the University of Cologne, commissioned a legal opinion on the compatibility of the Commission's proposal for a regulation with Community law and national constitutional law, in particular with fundamental rights. Prof. Dr. von Danwitz noted the incompatibility of certain elements of the proposed regulation, in particular the prohibition norms of Articles 4 and 11 and also the restrictive regulatory approach, such as the authorization procedure for health-related claims.
Due to their constitutional obligation, the representatives of the Federal Government are obliged to vote against all regulatory approaches that are contrary to Community and constitutional law during the deliberations at Brussels level. The same must also apply to all other parties involved in the deliberations. It is therefore hoped that the economic demands after the bans and prohibition authorizations of Articles 4 and 11, which are supposed to prohibit accurate and scientifically substantiated nutrition and health claims, will be heard, also because of the legal concerns that exist against these regulatory approaches. The same applies to the replacement of the envisaged approval procedure with a less complex notification procedure.
In the 2003 financial year, McDonald's Germany Inc. once again demonstrated its clear market leadership in gastronomy and continued on the road to success by consistently pursuing the strategic reorientation. McDonald's and its franchisees achieved net sales of around EUR 2003 billion in the 2,27 financial year. The company is thus moving at the level of the previous year despite the difficult economic environment.
"This year we concentrated on our core business and valued qualitative growth more highly than further expansion with new restaurants," says Adriaan Hendrikx, Managing Director of McDonald's Germany Inc and in a growing acceptance of our restaurant and product concept," Hendrikx continues. The McDonald's franchisees have also played a large part in this success. In 2003, 1.244 of the 879 restaurants nationwide were run by 272 franchisees - 13 of them in the second generation.
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Company data 2003
Opening of the 1st McDonald's restaurant: 1971 in Munich Opening of the 1000th McDonald's restaurant: 1999 in Berlin Net sales: €2,270 billion Restaurants: 1.244 Of which as satellites: 90 Freeway Restaurants: 64 Airport Restaurants: 4 Train Station Restaurants: 63 Development Satellites:
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Cattle from the Paderborn district tested positive
BSE was found in a cow born in the Paderborn district in 1999. The animal was slaughtered at the Paderborn slaughterhouse on March 4, and the obligatory rapid test revealed a BSE suspicion. The investigations in the national reference laboratory at the Federal Research Center for Viral Diseases in Animals (Riems Island) have now confirmed this suspicion. This means that ten cases of BSE have occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2000.
The beef comes from a farm with 87 animals. Two offspring of the cow and 18 animals of the cohort - animals that grew up with the infected cattle - are killed as a precautionary measure, since it cannot be ruled out that they are also infected with BSE. The complete slaughter batch is also destroyed.
