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European Commission Spokesman's Briefing for 97-04-04
From: EUROPA, the European Commission Server at <http://europa.eu.int>
MIDDAY EXPRESS
News from the Spokesman's midday briefing
Nouvelles du rendez-vous de midi du Porte-Paroleb
04/04/97
CONTENTS / CONTENU
[01] EU and Japon discuss harbour practices
[02] Humanitarian crisis in Zaire: joint appeal from Emma Bonino, Sadako
Ogata, Carol Bellamy and Catherine Bertini
[03] Food safety: first meeting of the renewed Multidisciplinary Scientific
Committee
[01] EU and Japon discuss harbour practices
A second round of consultations between the European Union (Eu) and Japan
on the Japanese Harbour Practices took place in Brussels on 2 April 1997.
The representatives of the Government of Japan manifested a clear
willingness to actively participate in the process aiming at improvements
in the present system of prior consultation. The Japanese Harbour Transport
Association (JHTA shipping lines) and Japanese Ministry of Transport (MoT)
have reached an interim agreement to stabilize the situation until 31 July
1997, and on a schedule for discussions on improvements to be agreed upon
by that time. Even though formally this is only a procedural agreement it
is considered as a step in the right direction. Both sides agreed to have
close contacts in the weeks to come and a third round of consultations when
needed. The Commission expects concrete results to emerge in time for the
needed changes to the present system to be agreed upon by the end of July.
[02] Humanitarian crisis in Zaire: joint appeal from Emma Bonino, Sadako
Ogata, Carol Bellamy and Catherine Bertini
Emma Bonino, European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian aid, Mrs Sadako
Ogata,UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ms Carol Bellamy, Executive
Director, UNICEF, Ms Catherine Bertini, Executive Director WFP, appealed to
the representatives of the Zairian government and the Alliance of
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, meeting tomorrow in
South Africa, to fully consider the urgent humanitarian needs of hundreds
of thousands of refugees and displaced Zairians stranded in the war zone.
They called on the parties to respect humanitarian principles and the
Geneva Conventions, to allow aid agencies free access to refugees and
displaced persons, among whom are thousands of children, and to enable aid
workers to reach and assist them. They also appealed to the international
community for urgent assistance to help reach these people, provide them
with emergency aid and - eventually - repatriate those who wish to return
home and provide asylum for bona fide refugees who continue to need it.
[03] Food safety: first meeting of the renewed Multidisciplinary Scientific
Committee
The Multidisciplinary Committee of the European Commission met in Brussels
on April 3 for the first time in the new structure recently agreed by the
Commission. The Committee definitively stressed that the technical
treatment conditions set out in Commission Decision 96/362/EC of 11 June
1996 do not adequately guarantee the inactivation of the BSE agent. In such
circumstances the Committee underlined that only non-infected primary
bovine material can ensure a totally safe gelatine. Commissioner Emma
Bonino, responsible for Consumer Policy and Consumer Health Protection,
declared that she would "draw the attention of the Commission to the
necessity of taking into account this advice in reexamining its decision of
11 June 1996 concerning the partial and conditional lifting of the ban on
gelatine exports derived from British bovine products". The Committee
also agreed on the necessity to establish a specific Scientific Committee
to advise the Commission on the use and commercialisation of genetically
modified organisms and of products containing genetically modified
organisms.
MIDDAY EXPRESS
From EUROPA, the European Commission Server at http://europa.eu.int/
© ECSC - EC - EAEC, Brussels-Luxembourg, 1995, 1996
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