The common position adopted by the Council by qualified majority represents a balanced further elaboration of the Commission proposal, where various provisions requested by the Council were included, and in which several of the 1st Reading amendments of the European Parliament have been taken into account.
The Commission agrees with the Council’s position regarding the provisions to be subject to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny and thus should endorse the Common position.
The Commission stated that it will only grant the authorisations referred to in Article 7 after examining the risks and at the same time will take into account the control tools in place to evaluate and ensure the proper implementation of these derogations. Related to the use of fish meal intended for young ruminants, certain restrictions could be envisaged linked to the production or type of those feedingstuffs.
As regards the derogation for fish meal, the Commission will use the results of the microscopic method of analysis which aim to differentiate fish proteins from those of mammals, as well as the results of the next “proficiency-testing” organised by the Community reference laboratory.