Daniel Constantin: Good afternoon! First, I would like to thank you for attending this meeting, on a Sunday. I want to say, from the beginning, that this is not a meeting generated by a special situation. There is no warning at this time. The purpose of this meeting is to present the situation, to make an updated assessment on the already scandal not only European but also international, pertaining to the mislabeling of horse meat. We intend to intensify - and I emphasize – the preventive actions that the Ministry of Agriculture, National Sanitary Veterinary Agency have taken during this period and to consider measures that have been applied so far to see their effectiveness. Equally, the fact that today there are more specialized institutions is based on the idea of involving as many state institutions as possible in the process of ... eventually to defend Romania's reputation at international level. We are at a time, as you know, tests known as DNA testing have started from March 1 in all EU member states to identify if label changing was widely used.
They are also testing the presence or not of phenylbutazone in these products. Our objective, of the Government is clear, first, to provide consumers, be it about consumers in Romania or in the EU market that this scandal is not really an attack on food security, safety, and I'm glad it's here Mr. Arafat, to reaffirm once again that all this international scandal did not put any time the health problem, human health at stake. Secondly, of course our goal is to protect consumer rights, namely the right to know what they are buying, when doing a particular order. Also, our role in this meeting is to protect up to the end, Romania’s image. I do not exclude the fact that over the next period, as it happened in the past too, Romania be accused, to be pointed at unjustifiably, because so far, there has not been proven the contrary, that has such habits, to change the label on Romanian territory, and afterwards, to export horsemeat as being beef meat in fact. I think my role as Agriculture Minister, of the ANSVA is to defend the area industry, and I want to stop a little because we all know, to give some explanations, we all know the efforts that the meat industry, the area industry has done up to January 1, 2007. Upon the EU accession, more than half of the abattoirs in Romania were closed as they did not comply with the quality norms on EU market. More than half the processing units had to make huge investments, to level up the quality standards in the EU market. I think it is unfair at this moment and if a certain situation were found, to point at an industry which in my view, rose to the level of other European states, with no problem, in a quicker process, than other European states. From this point of view, I would have been glad if industry in the area – as it happened in other Member States, see the example of France, to react quicker, to be more present in defending in the end their interests on the Romanian and EU market. I am sure and I voice my conviction that over the next period, they will be more active in showing whether there are gaps in this industry, or problems, if not, they should defend their economic interests as it should be. I want to tell you that there is other reason as well, for which I wanted to have this discussion. We all know, on EU market, in Europe, the financial crisis, economic crisis, there is still. I do not conceal that there are certain national industries that try to take advantage of this scandal of mislabeling the beef meat, in the attempt to have economic advantages, to persuade the big retailers, and processors from the respective markets, to buy from the respective country market, and not to import anymore from other member states. I think that in the end, there is about a huge economic stake, and I think that the industry in Romania and the Romanian authorities should protect the producers, the processors, the consumers from Romania against this matter. To an equal extent, as you could see in the past, the Government’s commitment in all this matter was a very firm one: who is wrong, pays. Fortunately for us, I could find only one abuse, a single situation in Blaj, where prompt action has been taken: today, the respective firm, the respective storage house has suspended authorization, until the Police will finish the investigation, and today, the Romanian Police is here, the Interior Ministry is here, and will present us probably the daily situation on the three situations we had at international level, but also on domestic situation. Fortunately for us, we had three situations where the name of Romania was mentioned, units from Romania, but none of the situations confirmed fortunately. On brief, on February 8, there was an alert coming from UK market. It has been proven that the two firms mentioned then had not been involved in the mislabeling.
The second situation, the second alert was on February 23, when such frauds were identified on the German market. It was talk back then that the country of origin was Romania and then too, not even then, there could be proven that such a fraud was committed on Romanian territory. And third situation: during past days, in Greece, on February 27, if I am not wrong, and I want the Sanitary – Veterinary Authority and the other institutions to present today a report as I have the impression that they believe that in Romania, the firm that would allegedly have made that fraud, it would have changed the label. I want to tell you that since the public announcement, and of that press release, we made efforts – I have here letters I sent to my counterpart in Greece, and my vet colleagues sent there requests. Not all data were received; therefore, I could not advance too much in this investigation, but from what I can see, and I am not a Prosecutor, I cannot tell you precisely, I do not think the fraud is likely to have been committed in Romania. It seems that there are two companies from Greece, and one from Bulgaria. There are situations in which a part of products from Romania went to Greece and others in Bulgaria. There are situations in which a part of the products originating in Romania went to Greece, others to Bulgaria. As far as I could find out, it is the same owner. Therefore, we will have to intensify the diplomatic efforts at all levels, so that we make sure that such fraud was not committed in Romania. If it did happen in Romania, surely, alike in Blaj case, we will send a strong signal in order to discourage all situations of this kind.
Also, I requested the Foreign Affairs Ministry to attend this meeting and I thank them for it, because I think that we are all interested in this period, authorities from Romania or Romania’s representatives abroad, to defend ourselves and to be extremely prompt in all situations at international level. There were situations in Great Britain, in Germany, France, and I want to thank all Embassies that reacted promptly in this matter, and they defended with arguments Romania’s image and the image of the sector industry. There were situations in which I wanted us to react much promptly, and here, I would like to remind you the fact that I found out from tv about situation in Greece as you perhaps, whereas the press release from the Sanitary – Veterinary Authority was issued somehow at 12.00 noon. We found it out in the evening, from the news breaking from tv. I further think and I had a discussion in this respect with Minister Corlatean and I sent him a letter in this respect, we would have had to be very careful to all situations which may emerge, over the next period, so that to prevent and act promptly, it is much difficult to defend the image of Romania than the image of any other member state, and then, we should all be together, in this joint effort to defend the economic interests.
I therefore requested the Consumer Protection representatives to be present – I would have liked that over the next time, you have more public positions on the interests of consumers. I know that you do not have powers on tests on food products, but I think that many of the consumers in Romania keep their eyes on you, and wait that you tell them one thing or about the products they buy on a daily basis.
I wish that in the coming period, to strengthen collaboration with veterinary authorities. Also, we thank Mr. President of ANAF, Mr. Serban Pop, who is present and I believe that together we can find solutions. We have been talking for a long time about tax evasion in agriculture, fruits and vegetables, in other sectors. I tell you, and you know very well that there is tax evasion in the meat sector too and it reaches a few hundreds million euro, whether we can estimate and whether we have a rough estimate. I think it is high time to try to combat tax evasion. That day, “traders” who had other habits than legal, threw a tonne of meat in Lake Tarniţa, this shows that they were very scared and I think we should fight, scare, first, those who believe that such things can happen related to tax evasion, in Romania of 2013, to accelerate during this period, so that we can get somewhat to normality.
I request you Mr. Vice President Vlad Mănăstireanu, from the National Sanitary Veterinary Authority, to present a statement to date on the three external circumstances, of which I spoke - Britain, Germany and Greece - and then, we will enter into discussions. This is a working meeting today, basically, and we plan together to find effective methods and intensify measures which have been taken so far - again, prevention. We had not a special situation, but it is best to prevent any situation that could arise. I want to thank, first veterinary colleagues, at least in the first case, they acted promptly, worked on Saturdays, Sundays, in situations where, in other states, there was no work, and it was hard enough to get the necessary elements to investigation you carried out. Please, if you can, very briefly, then I will ask the press for us to continue the working session. Thank you.