Commission welcomes Russia's decision to cancel temporary import requirements for fresh EU vegetables

 8 August 2011
Following the epidemiological evidence that the E.coli infection was over, and a request from the European Commission to Russia to lift the certification system as provided for in the agreement between EU and Russia of the 22nd of June, the Commission welcomes Russia's confirmation of its request to cancel the temporary import requirements for fresh EU vegetables as of tomorrow (9th August 2011).
Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli made the following statement:
"I welcome the decision by the Russian competent authorities to cancel the temporary import requirements for fresh EU vegetables. The decision implements the political agreement reached between Presidents Barroso and Medvedev on 10 June, elaborated with concrete implementation during my visit to Moscow on 22 June. That agreement provided, among other things, that the temporary certification system introduced for the imports of fresh EU vegetables would be applied up to 10 days after no new human case linked to E. coli O104 was reported by EU Member States. The last E. coli O104 human case was reported on Wednesday, July 27.
"Whereas the Commission remains vigilant and committed to learn the lessons of the crises that has caused so much suffering, it is of course welcome that this development represents the successful outcome of intense efforts to sort out this trade issue that emerged as a result the E. coli outbreak."
 
Reference:   http://www.reading.ac.uk/foodlaw/news/eu-11107.htm