Bonino calls for extra resources to fulfil new role

Date: 13/02/1997

By Michael Mann

MEPs and EU governments will have to put their money where their mouths are if the European Commission shake-up in response to the BSE crisis is to be effective.

In the week that Consumer Affairs Commissioner Emma Bonino gained wide-ranging new responsibilities for the protection of consumer health, her officials suggested she would not be prepared to take on such a high-profile task unless she had the resources to make it a success.

This week's decision to move most of the tasks relating to food safety to Bonino's Directorate-General for consumer policy (DGXXIV) will be implemented mainly by shifting existing staff between divisions.

But the Commission stressed that it was “necessary to grant this department appropriate additional financial resources” to do its job effectively.

The major question is now whether - even if the changes are carried through successfully - they will be sufficient to satisfy the European Parliament, whose committee of inquiry into the handling of the BSE crisis made scathing criticisms of the Commission's past policies.

The committee chairman, German Christian Democrat Reimer Böge, yesterday (12 February) refused to comment on the Commission's attempt to answer MEPs' criticisms.

But the onus now lies with the Parliament's political groups, who must make up their minds next week whether to go ahead with a 'no confidence' vote against the entire executive, or opt for a 'conditional' censure motion.

Committee member Philip Whitehead, a British Socialist MEP, said there was “a strong body of opinion in most of the groups that an immediate vote of censure against this Commission would not be appropriate”.

But he warned that there was every prospect of a motion at a later stage, “if the recommendations contained in the report were not acted upon”.

While this week's initiative was a “welcome first step”, Whitehead stressed that Commission President Jacques Santer would have to introduce greater transparency in the selection of Commission staff and “moves towards setting up a European food agency”.

He also said the Parliament would use the Intergovernmental Conference to reassess its relationship with the Commission, not least to ensure satisfactory scrutiny of its actions.

The various political groups have begun studying Santer's approach in preparation for next week's debate at the Strasbourg plenary session. The Green Group is already looking for support for a censure motion, but will need backing from other groups to raise the necessary 63 signatures to set the procedure in motion.

Santer's specific recommendations do not go much further than those outlined to the committee of inquiry in January.

He has announced that a sub-group of Commissioners will be set up to look at questions of human food safety and a new unit will be established within DGXXIV to run seven scientific committees, with the multi-disciplinary committee on BSE being transformed into a management committee made up of the leaders of the various other committees.

DGXXIV will change its name to the Directorate-General for consumer policy and health protection, under new Director-General Horst Reifenbach, former chef de cabinet to Regional Policy Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies.

The veterinary inspection office in Ireland will become the 'office for control and evaluation of product quality', also falling under Bonino's jurisdiction. The Commission's long-term aim remains to persuade EU governments to allow this to become an independent agency.

The Commission's spokesman said the institution would come up with proposals in the next two months to improve the functioning of the sectoral committees, and reserved the right to propose changes to the decision-making process during

the IGC.