PRESS BRIEFING WITH
MARKOS KYPRIANOU,
EU COMMISSIONER FOR HEALTH AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2005
10:30 AM
EU COMMISSION DELEGATION
WASHINGTON, DC

Transcript by:
Federal News Service
Washington, DC

MAEVE O’BEIRNE: Thank you all for coming this morning. I would like to welcome especially Commissioner Markos Kyprianou. He is the first Cypriot EU Commissioner to come to the Washington Delegation and to venture into the Press Room. He is here in this capacity as Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. He has been in office since November 2004. We know this is a hot dossier sometimes because his areas of responsibility touch on consumers, businesses, regulations and legislatures.

He has had a very full program, which he will tell you about here in Washington. He will start with a short statement and then we will proceed to questions and answers. It will all be on the record and please identify yourselves when you ask your questions. Okay.

MARKOS KYPRIANOU: We give a copy of the program –

MS. O’BEIRNE: Yes, we have made that available in the press kits and I would like to thank my colleagues in the Press Section, particularly Anna Prisco and Sarah Curran, for preparing them.

MR. KYPRIANOU: Okay. Well, good morning. It’s true. I’m the first Cypriot Commissioner to visit. That was easy because I’m the first Cypriot Commissioner anyways so – (laughter) – there hasn’t been one before so it’s easy to have this record. It is my visit though in my new capacity. It was very important in my mind to visit the United States as soon as possible, meet with my counterparts and discuss those issues but also set up the procedures to solve any potential problems and also get to know each other as well.

It was not – it wasn’t though just bilateral meetings but we also had meetings – we also had – I attended some conferences mostly on consumer issues, which – kind of a good coincidence -- were taking place this week.

I consider the US and the EU important partners to each other, and therefore it is important that we work together on consumer policy, on food safety and health. We have similar problems, if not the same problems, and we can learn from each other, work with each other and come up with solutions, which most of the time could even be the same solutions.

The three important items on the agenda in my discussions -- because we had discussed many issues of course – were, first – I would like to refer to those – first, the obesity problem, which is something we just have come up to realize the extent in the European Union so we are in the process of working on that. It’s a complicated issue. And we know the Americans and we discussed with American counterparts that they are facing the same problems, trying to find solutions.

So it’s – given the similarities to the problem, but also the fact that a very big part of those involved, which is the food industry – really the same place on both sides of the Atlantic – it’s useful to work together to discuss, first of all, and then work together to solve the problem. But also we have the issues of major health threats and their reaction to pending crises and of course how we can cooperate across the Atlantic on consumer protection.

On obesity, as I said, we have just started now in the European Union to deal with the problem. It took us much longer to realize the extent of it. But now we have to run quickly and urgently before it takes more threatening dimensions. I’ve heard about the CDC [US Centers for Disease Control] report this morning on – the new reported numbers of deaths related to obesity. Nevertheless, it is a major concern on this both in the US and in the European Union, especially because now it affects children; and it’s argued that the obese, overweight children today will be adults with heart problems, with diabetes problems, even counselling problems, respiratory diseases and other related illnesses. So it is important to work on that.

(Inaudible) – in Europe we have just launched a platform, which we call the Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. And there were brought together all of those involved – all of the stakeholders, which is the food, advertising, catering industries; health NGOs; public bodies; also the Member States that have already start working on this. And the idea is that each partner – it is an interesting first time, let’s say, it seems to be, because the first time we have been together – everybody to work hard on a solution on a voluntary basis – self-regulation, commitment to it, verifiable, monitored, which will have to produce results. But we have decided that it is a better approach not to legislate but actually to ask those involved to come up with their own actual plans and commit to those.

What is encouraging is that everybody has admitted to being part of the problem and everybody wants to be part of the solution now. And we didn’t get – we didn’t waste any time on blame games and trying to blame one or the other because we all are to be blamed for this – parents, families, schools, governments, the food industry, the restaurant industry. It is now – this is the big task now – the big challenge is to find a solution. And the first signs from those involved are positive and I’m quite optimistic that we can find solutions.

And the advantage of this procedure -- besides the fact that the results of it will be agreed and so easily implemented – will be much faster than actually having to go through legislation, which ends up eventually being controversial. Nevertheless, I have told all of those involved that we expect results to come from this procedure, and if they don’t they will be left with no choice but to consider legislation.

For this issue – on this issue, we will work together and we will continue the cooperation with the American authorities. And what we proposed – what I proposed was to hold a plenary meeting of the platform in the spring next year and invite a US delegation to attend it -- the authorities, consumers, food industry – and this way we can exchange views and also see if we can find common solutions. It’s interesting – besides having a similar problem – I think it’s interesting – it’s an important factor that the largest food industry – food companies operate on both sides of the Atlantic. So it will be beneficial to all if we can come – if we can sit together and work to find solutions.

We also discussed the issue of health threats. The flu epidemic is a major threat at this stage for the whole world, but we worry – we’re extremely concerned about this prospect – both by this prospect – both in the European Union and in the US. We have a procedure and we discuss this – for example, the Global Health Security Initiative – but at the same time through bilateral discussions, we can see how we can help each other – also exchange views, exchange best practices, given that we’ll have similar solutions to this problem.

The main problem is that – let’s say from the beginning that we are advised by scientists that there will be an epidemic based on their evidence. It’s not a question of if; it’s a question of when; therefore we have to prepare as well as possible. So one aspect is to have – one approach is to have the preparedness plans, and that is what we are working on in the European Union, but at the same time to have the means to deal with the problem. And vaccines are a major concern, not only the delay in coming up with a vaccine – developing it to deal with the new strain of virus that will be epidemic, but at the same to build up capacity of the industry to produce enough vaccines in case there is an epidemic.

And this way – in this we respect, we again try to have a private-public partnership where the Member States will – through purchase of vaccines now in a way encourage, fund or give financial incentive to the industry to build up its capacity so it can meet the demand on manufacturing large quantities of vaccines in case of an epidemic and that is something we are – as a Commission we are trying to work out an agreement between the Member States and the vaccine industry.

But we also have a joint cooperation with the US authorities on – in relation to health threats. I mentioned that there is a Global Health Security Initiative. But we also are working on cooperation in issues like linking a rapid alert system or sharing ideas on contingents of plans and establishing standard notification procedures. And in this respect, it is very important that we have just established in the European Union the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which will establish close links with the United States CDC in Atlanta. We control a lot – we can learn a lot from the operations of the CDC. That is why I’m visiting it tomorrow.

But also part of this cooperation will also entail the exchange of staff, which I think is very important – to have European scientists working for awhile in Atlanta and the other way around. This way we can learn much more from each other than through the normal procedures of seminars and conferences. The actual work in the field will help much more the preparation of the European CDC.

Finally, I will touch a little bit on consumer issues. I have attended first of all the annual meeting of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, which is a dialogue bringing together consumer organizations from both sides of the Atlantic. There were about forty-five European Union and ten US consumer organizations. And it is a very good example of how representatives of the civil society can work together to produce results through cooperation. It’s – again, I’m not surprised that we deal with the same problems and the same issues; we have the same concerns and, to a great extent, we have the same products circulating in the market. So it’s natural that we exchange views, discuss and come up with solutions to any potential problems.

There were discussions on a wide range of topics including the EU – European Union system to evaluate the safety of chemicals – the famous REACH proposal. But also though with Internet spam, the airline passenger data, intellectual property rights, the GM [Genetically Modified] food and diet-related disease – a wide range of topics but of concern to consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.

I also had a meeting with the Federal Trade Commissioner, Mrs. Majoras, and we discussed how we can cooperate. The obesity is one of the issues that we’ll work together but also we will consider the possibility – and there was a positive reaction from the side of the FTC to begin talks on an agreement on consumer protection enforcement cooperation. We have just adopted legislation, which is coming to force at the end of the year – legislation of the European Union providing for the cooperation among the Member States on – cooperation on enforcement of consumer protection laws. But given the great movement of consumers and businesses between the EU and the United States, I feel – and my American colleague – agreed that it is useful also to start talking about having – to have an enforcement agreement – cooperation agreement between the United States and the EU.

Also, there was the workshop of the OECD organized yesterday on alternative – (inaudible) – resolutions. This is something very useful for the consumers, especially consumers in relation – that have problems in relation to small claims or items of not great value or to cross-border transactions. And the cause to the user litigation procedure is something very difficult, costly, time consuming. We in European Union established a European Consumer Center that helped in this process but also we need to educate the consumers of how to deal with this – how to take advantage of this possibility alternative – this resolution. And it was a very good initiative on the part of the OECD to organize this discussion yesterday.

Two more issues in relation to the consumers that I think are of interest. First of all, the adoption of the European Union of the new directive on unfair commercial practices. It has been agreed that formal adoption will take place I expect in June due to translation delay. We have to – before we formally adopt legislation in the European Union it has to be translated into the twenty official languages. But it is very important that this has been an important piece of legislation in relation to consumer protection. There are reasons, but two that I would consider very important: first of all, it’s a full harmonization directive in a sense that it will be equally applied in all twenty-five Member States. And therefore both the consumers will have – will know – they will have equal level of protection but also the business will be able to operate with a same set of rules all over the European Union.

But at the same time, that the directive lists the names, practices that will constitute aggressive or misleading marketing makes it much easier for the prosecutors – for the authorities to enforce the protection laws – the consumer protection laws without having to go through lengthy and sometimes difficult evidence procedures. They will just have to prove the fact. But then, once they prove the fact, they will not have to prove that this is – this act constitutes aggressive or misleading marketing if it’s included in the list. That does not exclude of course proving that other acts as well constitute a violation of the law. But nevertheless those – and this is a very comprehensive list -- those that are included there will make it much easier for the prosecuting authorities.

Another issue that was raised in the discussions in relation to consumers was that consumer detriment is a concept of how to evaluate the consumer detriment so we can base our policies on a more objective and sound methodology.

I think I should stop here because I talked too long and hopefully there is some time for questions. Thank you very much.

MS. O’BEIRNE: Thank you, Commissioner. I think you have shown that you have a wide remit and you have come to grips with it very impressively in such a short period of time.

MR. KYPRIANOU: I didn’t do – I didn’t list the names of all the meetings I have had or – (inaudible) – because –

MS. O’BEIRNE: Why don’t we do that quickly because it might be useful for you to bring it all back to Washington for a moment. You have just come from a meeting with Senator Bradley, is that correct?

MR. KYPRIANOU: That is right.

MS. O’BEIRNE: And you have also met with USDA [US Department of Agriculture] Secretary Johanns; Health and Human Services Secretary Leavitt; FDA [US Food & Drug Administration] Commissioner Lester Crawford; and Ambassador Allen Johnson from the USTR [Office of the US Trade Representative].

MR. KYPRIANOU: Yes.

MS. O’BEIRNE: Next he is going to –

MR. KYPRIANOU: And Senator Burr.

MS. O’BEIRNE: And Senator Burr. Okay, so if you would like to ask your questions, please remember to identify yourselves and the Commissioner will take it from here.

Q: (Inaudible.) I’m not sure – you mentioned the obesity situation and the fact that you don’t want it legislate it – (inaudible) – do you have any hard copy on data on which of the member countries this issue is more severe than the others, and will there be more of a burden on them to comply with whatever set of guidelines you come up with?

MR. KYPRIANOU: Well, I have – we have – I don’t have it with me. We have the obesity taskforce that came up with evidence – I think it is available on our website, so you can get it from there. But what is surprising – some – (inaudible) – is shocking is that the greatest problem now is in the Mediterranean Member States. And there are explanations on that, but one we get is that precisely the fact that now these days – that the people in these countries have abandoned their Mediterranean diet, which was known to be healthy, and also don’t have as much physical activity as they used to because in the past – because of the good weather, they see – people would exercise naturally – children especially.

Now they have adopted the same lifestyle as everywhere else in Europe. Children are just playing video games, they don’t exercise anymore, they eat unhealthy food, they given up on the – there aren’t any more fruit and vegetables. So this had a greater effect on Mediterranean countries. And actually in some of them – I think Greece is one, or parts of Greece – the rate of obesity is higher than the United States. So now we have actually in some areas of Europe a greater problem than in the US. But overall now, it is such a big problem everywhere in Europe that the solutions will be equal applied and adopted everywhere.

Q: Good morning. I’m Gary Uke (ph) with DNA (?). The press release said that was issued last week announcing your visit here said you would raise the issue of GMOs [Genetically Modified Organisms] and – (inaudible). You didn’t – (inaudible) – in your introductory remarks.

MR. KYPRIANOU: I was testing to see if you were listening to what I was saying. (Laughter.)

Q: I was. (Off-mike.)

MR. KYPRIANOU: We discussed it – we discussed the issue with USDA but also with Senator – the Senate today. We explained – I thought it would be useful to explain firsthand the decision last week on Bt10 (these unauthorized products) – and explained that it is – that we didn’t have discretion on the matter: the European legislation requires us to ensure that no unauthorized product enters the market. And the fact that it took so long for us to be notified that this problem existed made it even more urgent for us to act.

At the same time, we could not allow any challenges to the system, which allows the authorization of the products. We have a very sophisticated, thorough assessment – evaluation system for GM in the European Union, and it was important to show that this system works both for authorized and unauthorized products; it works both ways.

So, taking this into account and our obligation to ensure that these unauthorized products do not enter the market, we chose a – (inaudible) – which is very targeted, very limited. It touches only two products that may have been affected. And actually, it will be quite painless, provided that the detection method is applied as soon as possible. From our part and our services and our research center, we’ll verify the detection method without delay as soon as we get all of the information, all of the material from those involved.

So I believe from that point of view, as soon as we have the detection method, then it will be a simple procedure of analyzing the product and that they import – well, they export to the European Union the shipments and making sure they don’t contain the specific product. So I explained the reasons, our legal obligations, but also the system the procedure will have in the European Union, and I believe that it was well accepted.

Q: Was there any response from the American side in terms of that – (off mike)?

MR. KYPRIANOU: No, but I don’t think there is any – what – we’re both working -- I would say that we are both working to put in place as soon as possible the detection methods because these will make sure that trading will be affected as little as possible. But I want to make clear that this is not a ban, as wrongly was labeled by some sides – by the press. It’s not a ban; it’s a requirement for a report showing that an unauthorized product is not there. You don’t ban unauthorized products. So we don’t – this will not affect the authorized products; this will be – we will be able to continue to let them enter the market, provided that there is a report saying that they aren’t affected by the unauthorized one.

Q: Steve Clapp with Food Chemical News. Just following up on that, do you have any estimate as to when this detection method will be ready? Can you start – (off mike)?

MR. KYPRIANOU: You understand how dangerous it is to make decisions, but I would say that next week this should be sorted out. I would hope – this is a wish – I would hope that we can have it by the beginning of the week. But I would expect – with information we have now, I would expect to at least by the end of the next week. But I have to say that again, it is not up to us; it is up to the company involved to provide the required material for the Joint Research Center [JRC] of the European Union to confirm the test. So as soon as we get that, the JRC will work immediately to verify the test.

Q: Christine – (inaudible) – from Inside US Trade. I understand that the testing requirement that Europe adopted was not meant to last forever, but I understand that this proposal will be a permanent – (inaudible) – in about six months or so. Is there any pressure from Member States or any – (inaudible) – within the Commission that these are two perhaps results – (inaudible) – proposal to ensure that unauthorized GMO products don’t get into –

MR. KYPRIANOU: Well, I mean, we have to be – okay, I’ll take that as a – one at a time. First of all, as far as the testing: what the report requirement, because the test is the means to provide the report – the analytical report showing that Bt10 is not included. Based on the information we have -- and at some stages we will need it more officially – is that the problem will be solved when this crop – last year’s crop is exhausted. Next year’s crop we were told is not affected – that this data was corrected on time, so next year’s crop will have no problem.

Now, once we get this in a – I’ll say, guaranteed -- but in a more authoritative way, then we will be able to suggest the Member States not to ask for this measure anymore because it deals with a specific product for a specific period of crops. So we feel that with exhaustion – that is our belief and that is information we have got – with exhaustion of the crop of last year, then there will be no problem. Therefore there will be no need to continue to ask for this report. All of this will have to be verified, but I’m confident that this can happen.

Now, the truth is that there may be suggestions – we haven’t had them so far – good suggestions from some Members States to review our system and see how we deal with similar situations. That is why it was important for us to show that we have the means and we have the method to deal with situations effectively without really a need to change the system as such. So that is something, though, that we have to see in the future how it goes. And also I think it’s important to discuss this with American authorities at the same time – with the US authorities because both the problem kept here – so it will be good to maybe see how we can prevent similar problems in the future so we won’t have to take any measures in the European Union. But the priority at this stage was to deal with this situation now and then for the long run we will have more discussions on the future.

Q: On another topic, I understand on what the senators and what the US officials – (inaudible) – specific tests although – (inaudible) – or SPS (?) issues. Can you go over what to expect of this office?

MR. KYPRIANOU: We sort of have an agenda without – we will not negotiate in our discussion to reach a conclusion. On the BSE, we agree to cooperate within the context of the OIE, the World Organization for Animal Health and try to – well -- make every effort to come to an agreement within the International Organization on the whole BSE issue – the – (inaudible) -- and all of the other aspects. This will solve some pending problems between the US and the EU especially for exports of beef to the US market.

Now, if that doesn’t work and the OIE does not decide in May -- because the session will be next month – then we will revisit the problem – the issue and see how we can come up with some other solutions. And we touched other issues as well, like the issue of hormones in the beef, the – I have a list now – it’s a range of problems but as I said it was – their target was to touch on the issues and see how we can deal with them and find solutions. Roughly this, yeah.

MS. O’BEIRNE: We can provide more information – (inaudible).

MR. KYPRIANOU: A general comment, though, I have to say is that even though – and that is something I raised in my meeting – there is a lot of trade in food between the two sides and most of it is without problems – of course the job of us – the authorities, is to deal with the problems and solve them. But sometimes, there is the impression around that we have nothing but problems, which is not the case.

So we both have very high standards of food safety and I think the sooner we implement – and that is one of the issues I have raised – it will come back to me slowly – one of the issues I have raised was the implementation with the Veterinary Equivalence Agreement, which has been signed a few years ago – is not being fully implemented yet, but this will help because it will create equivalence between the two sides because we both have very high standards of food safety, but the systems are not identical. But that doesn’t mean that the results are not satisfactory.

And we attacked those solutions (?) of fish exports – fish products from the US to the EU and also from the – also the issue of dairy exports, of dairy products from the EU to the US. Of course I have to make clear that I don’t negotiate – I wasn’t here to negotiate anyway – but also the trade aspect is not my responsibility. My responsibilities had to deal with specific, scientific, risk assessment, food safety, health issues, and see how we can solve those.

MS. O’BEIRNE: If I may ask a question – maybe a lot of people have in mind as well. You have talked a lot about the substance of what you have discussed here with our American interlocutors. What about the atmosphere? Did you find in the meetings –

MR. KYPRIANOU: Very good, very cordial, very open, very frank, and I have to say, this could be a disappointment to some who thought that we would come here and pick up a fight. I think that when the actions are justified and based on principles, on science, and on the system, I think if we explain and talk to each other, there will be no problem. So what I found extremely positive – that is both sides will both want to continue discussions to solve all of the penalty problems to increase trade as much as possible but also cooperate in the other spheres because this was one part of my discussions. But at the same time, the cooperation on health issues is just as important because the health threats are real, they are there and we have to deal with them. And one of them also is bio-terrorism and that is something we can work together with the United States. Even though the security part is not my responsibility, the fact that once an attack or chaos occurs, then the way you deal with it, whether it’s a natural outbreak of an epidemic or it’s an intentional one, you deal with it the same way. So it is my responsibility in my services to deal with such a situation. So that is another area where we had – we can have a very good cooperation.

MS. O’BEIRNE: Do we have any more questions? Okay, well, I would like to thank the Commissioner for his candor, and a transcript will be available and we can send it around to you later on today. And I would like to remind you that Commissioner McGreevy who is responsible for Internal Market and Financial Services will be here on Friday at our Entre Nous, which starts at 11:00, but he may arrive a little bit later. So please let your colleagues know who cover those issues.

Thank you very much.

(END)