Today, the European Parliament is expected to confirm an
agreement reached by the European Commission, the Council and the
European Parliament this June on a dossier that sets out new
rules to help fight antimicrobial resistance.
"Antibiotic resistance is threatening to send our health system
back to the Middle Ages. This is why we have to continue to fight
against the misuse of antibiotics in animals, which are an
important source of antibiotic resistance, then transmitted to
humans", said the EPP Group’s Françoise Grossetête, author of the
dossier on the regulation of veterinary medicinal products.
Throughout the inter-institutional negotiations, one of the most
important priorities the EPP Group fought for was the reciprocity
of European standards for the use of antibiotics in imported
foods.
"Our trading partners who want to continue importing to Europe
will have to obey the same standards as us. We cannot continue to
impose standards on European breeders that our partners do not
respect", stressed Grossetête.
The agreement, which, amongst others, suggests restricting the
preventive use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine and drawing
up a list of antibiotics that can only be used in the field of
human medicine, is expected to be finally approved by the Member
States by the end of this year.
