Our food health inspectorate checked tinned food originating from Russia in our country and in Germany, and found the same increase in these substances for which Russia had taken us to task.

Somebody who's a fish inspector, for example, needs to know the fish inside out in order to visually detect something, but if their main training is on the HACCP model, then the job is making sure that all those paper trails are in line and they're able to catch anything that's not out of line.

56. Believes that cooperation in the promotion of regulatory convergence in the agricultural sector, notably with regard to sanitary and phytosanitary measures, should be intensified; stresses the importance, for many Member States, of exports of agricultural products to Russia, i.e. fish, meat and dairy products; expresses concern, therefore, at the recent restrictive measures adopted by Russia in this field and urges the EU to back the Member States affected by those measures and to find a common solution to problems with exports to the Russian market ...[+++], specifically relating to sanitary and phytosanitary measures;

There are at present three separate directives laying down animal health conditions governing trade in aquaculture animals and products and minimum Community measures for the control of certain fish diseases and of certain diseases affecting bivalve molluscs (91/67/EEC; 93/53/EEC; 95/70/EEC).

If we accept that fisheries inspectors can only take samples of a landing if the sample has been accepted by the ship owner, we may undermine the inspectors’ ability to carry out the necessary controls.

There are a number of elements in the Commission's strategy in this area: - extending the scope of Community rules to those areas at present subject to national health legislation (for example, fish and dairy products); - extending the rules at present limited to intra-Community trade to Member States' domestic markets; - providing specific health rules for products not yet covered elsewhere; - improving coordination of control and surveillance measures; - bringing in legislation on biotechnology; and - setting up research programmes in the field of advanced technology.