Poles anxious over measuring up to EU production standards

Date: 11/09/03

THERE are more than a few jitters in the ten mostly ex-communist countries set to join the EU next year about how they will live up to its exacting standards on food safety.

This is especially so in Poland, the largest of the ten. Although agriculture accounts for less than 3% of Poland's gross domestic product, almost one-fifth of the country's population work in the industry.

Over the past few months, there has even been speculation in Poland that a 'safeguard clause' proposed by the European Commission in October 2002 would be invoked against it. This clause is designed to allow the imposition of protective measures, which can be applied for up to three years, in cases where food safety standards are wanting; some Polish commentators have voiced worries that an EU export ban would be applied to produce from regions that struggle to adjust to the Union's laws.

Last month Poland's Europe Minister, Danuta Hübner, played down the risk of the clause being used. But Hübner, tipped as a strong contender to become Warsaw's first EU commissioner, acknowledged that the clause exists and that monitoring of food safety is a long-term process which the Union's executive will undertake.

During the negotiations on the terms of accession for the new countries, there was much bargaining about how long their food production facilities could be given to upgrade themselves in order to comply with EU standards. These place both an onus on plant owners to modernize, and on governments to have effective sampling programmes in place, to test food for pesticide residues, hormone and antibiotic levels and any traces of BSE.

Under the Union's Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development, which covers agricultural aid to the incoming EU states, around EUR 1 billion has been earmarked to help plants renovate. But special dispensations have been granted to six of the ten states. Poland has been given by far the most of these. Some 332 of its meat facilities, 113 dairy outlets and 40 fish production plants have been granted transitional periods, which in most cases last until December 2007. Latvia, the Czech Republic and Hungary have also been granted considerable leeway - 77 Latvian abattoirs and 44 each in the Czech Republic and Hungary can wait until January 2006 before their upgrading has to be completed. By contrast, Slovenia has been granted a transitional period for just one meat and one fish plant.

Despite the sacrifices they will eventually have to make, Poles are keen to stress that their country's system of agriculture, which in many pockets of the country is still undertaken at a subsistence level, is better suited to producing healthy food than the more industrialized system that predominates in the current EU.