The EPP Group's speaker in the Parliament's Committee on Public Health and Food Safety, Richard Seeber, calls for better enforcement of existing food labelling rules and for a revision of the Food Labelling Regulation in the light of the recent horsemeat scandal. The Committee today discussed possible consequences from the falsely-labelled horsemeat which has been found in many EU countries.

"What has been discovered in recent days is large-scale fraud. This is a clear breach of current European food labelling rules. This is why the first thing we need is more controls and better enforcement of the existing rules", said Richard Seeber, EPP Group Co-Coordinator in the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee of the European Parliament. For this reason, Mr Seeber welcomes the European Commission's initiative to fund more DNA tests for meat. "Labelling fraud must become a criminal offence in Europe. If it is treated as an administrative misdemeanour only, rules are pointless", he stressed.

Richard Seeber is calling for a revision of the labelling rules for processed meat: "One of the reasons of the scandal is that it is not sufficiently clear what is in processed meat and where the processed meat comes from."

"I want clear, EU-wide harmonised country of origin labelling of processed meat throughout the whole trade and the processing line. All labelling rules need more and tougher controls. The best law does not help if it is not enforced", concluded Richard Seeber.

Furthermore, Mr Seeber welcomes the currently ongoing Impact Assessment by the European Commission, analysing the feasibility of a comprehensive origin labelling on all products

For further information:

Richard SEEBER MEP, tel.: +32-228-45468

Daniel Köster, EPP Group Press and Communications Service, tel.: +32-487-384784

Note to Editors

The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 270 Members and 3 Croatian Observer Members.