EU envoys meet to seal Brexit talks red lines

Yahoo – AFP, Alex PIGMAN, February 24, 2020

France is leading a small group of countries demanding that European vessels maintain
open access to British waters that are particularly rich in fish stocks (AFP Photo/William
EDWARDS)

Brussels (AFP) - EU envoys meet on Monday to finalise a negotiating mandate for Brexit trade talks with Britain, with France insisting on strict red lines to uphold European standards.

Establishing the foundation for new ties with Britain is the next chapter in the Brexit saga, with signs pointing to several months of acrimonious talks between London and Brussels with the outcome highly uncertain.

Britain left the European Union on January 31, but entered a transition phase until the end of the year to give time to hammer out a new basis for relations on trade, security and defence.

But there are doubts the two sides will bridge their differences in that time, with French President Emmanuel Macron warning at the weekend he was "not sure" a deal would be struck by the end of December.

Trade will be the biggest flashpoint, with the remaining 27 EU countries especially nervous that Britain will backslide on standards to win a competitive edge against European businesses.

Fishing is also a hot-button issue, with France leading a small group of countries demanding that European vessels maintain open access to British waters that are particularly rich in fish stocks.

The EU envoys meet at around 1400 GMT and if they find common ground, the matter will then go to a meeting of European affairs ministers on Tuesday, whose final green light would open the way for talks with the UK to start on March 2.

'The whole point'

Recent days have shown that tetchy talks lie ahead, with Britain insisting it is no longer chasing a deep partnership with Europe that would require matching EU rules on health, labour standards, environment and other matters.

Instead, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is asking for a simplified deal similar to those the EU has struck with Canada, Japan and South Korea that reduce tariff barriers to near zero, but which have less strict controls on standards.

Bringing that point home to Europe, in a speech in Brussels last week, Britain's chief Brexit negotiator David Frost said his government's desire to throw off EU regulations was not just a negotiating position but "the point of the whole (Brexit) project".

"We must have the ability to set laws that suit us -- to claim the right that every other non-EU country in the world has," Frost said.

Even a "no deal", with its heavy implications for the economy, does not seem to frighten London, casting deep uncertainty in the forthcoming negotiations of barely 10 three-week rounds of talks.

The European side is annoyed and to some measure suspicious of the change of heart, especially since British Prime Minister signed a political declaration in October that called for an ambitious partnership.

The negotiating mandate under consideration was first proposed by the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier with bloc member states inserting their changes over the past few weeks.

In drafts seen by AFP, language on fishing and on upholding norms -- known as maintaining the "level playing field" -- have been toughened up, which EU sources said came at the insistence of Paris.

Some member states have added language on issues close to them, including a call that Britain must "return unlawfully removed cultural objects to their country of origin", a problem dear to Greece, Italy and Cyprus.

Stefaan de Rynck, a senior adviser to Barnier, warned last week that the next few months of talks could be even tougher than the divorce negotiations that formally ended Britain's 47-year membership of the EU.

"We expect some of the negotiations to be rather difficult, perhaps more difficult than during the withdrawal," de Rynck told an audience at the London School of Economics.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian put it even more vivdly, predicting the two sides would "rip each other apart".

London has until the end of June to ask for a deadline extension should the talks fail to make any headway in the coming months.

But Johnson has ruled out asking for more time, a stance that raises the prospects of a "no deal" or only a bare-bones deal which could also bring major disruption.

EU states destroy suspect Polish beef as scare spreads

Yahoo – AFP, Michel VIATTEAU, February 1, 2019

Poland's chief veterinarian Pawel Niemczuk confirmed that 2.7 tonnes of the
suspect beef was exported (AFP Photo/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)

Warsaw (AFP) - Several EU countries on Friday seized and destroyed suspect beef from a Polish slaughterhouse where allegedly sick cows were butchered, despite assurances from Warsaw that the meat did not pose a health risk.

Poland's chief veterinarian Pawel Niemczuk confirmed that 2.7 tonnes of the suspect beef was exported, while the European Commission said the meat was traced to 13 member states where it was being withdrawn and destroyed.

The scare recalls a 2013 scandal in which horsemeat was passed off as beef and used in ready-to-eat meals sold across Europe.

Brussels will send a team of auditors to Poland to assess the situation on the spot, said Anca Paduraru, a spokeswoman for the European Commission.

French authorities said 795 kilogrammes (1,750 pounds) of beef from the slaughterhouse -- which has now been closed -- had been imported.

More than 500 kilogrammes have already been seized and destroyed, said France's Directorate General of Food.

French Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume said nine French companies had been "duped" into importing beef from the abattoir in Kalinowo, a village some 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Warsaw.

Lame or diseased?

Portuguese authorities said they had destroyed 99 kilogrammes of suspect Polish beef, while Romania said it had eliminated 1,432 kilogrammes as a "safety measure".

The cows were slaughtered late at night when veterinary authorities were 

unlikely to visit (AFP Photo/ADRIEN MORLENT)

Sweden's National Food Agency said that just under 100 kilogrammes of the total 239 kilogrammes of suspect Polish beef delivered to the country had already been consumed, while the rest has been seized.

The beef was also exported to the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Spain, according to the European Commission.

Niemczuk said another seven tonnes were sold to about 20 outlets in Poland but insisted that tests found it did not pose a health risk.

Despite the assurances, Polish beef producers are reeling from the scandal with prices falling by around seven percent since an undercover TV report on the slaughter was aired on Saturday.

"All segments of the Polish (beef) market are worried," Jerzy Wierzbicki, head of the Polish PZPBM meat producers' association, told AFP on Friday.

Wierzbicki insisted that the cows shown in the report by the TVN24 commercial news channel were lame but not diseased.

"They were lame cows... such cattle should not be taken to a slaughterhouse but should rather be put down on the farm by a person who is qualified to do so," Wierzbicki said.

A criminal probe was launched after a TV report aired footage of apparently sick 

or lame cows being dragged across the floor and then butchered in Poland (AFP Photo/

Janek SKARZYNSKI)

'Isolated case'

"This is an isolated case, concerning a single company, the concerns are unfounded," he said, conceding that the scandal could deal a blow to Polish beef producers who rely on exports.

A leading pork supplier in the European Union, Poland also produced some 415,000 tonnes of beef last year and nearly 90 percent of it was exported, Wierzbicki said.

Poland's Agriculture Minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski said on Friday that "pathologies" in the agri-food industry would be "cauterised with a hot iron".

"A police investigation is underway regarding the owners of the slaughterhouse and anyone involved in this process," he said, adding that there was "zero tolerance" for anything that could harm Polish exports.

The criminal probe was launched after TVN24 aired footage of apparently sick or lame cows being dragged across the floor and then butchered.

The TVN24 report said dealers bought lame or sick cattle at much lower prices. A journalist working undercover at the abattoir used a hidden camera to film the secret late night slaughter when veterinary authorities were unlikely to visit.

The European Commission has not commented on the quality of the meat in question, but issued a statement that raised concerns about the treatment of the sick animals, which it insisted could not be considered fit for human consumption.

"The practice of dragging animals unable to walk, as described (in the Polish report) is prohibited by European Union legislation on the protection of animals in slaughterhouses," it said.

Fish finger fighting fund to aid EU food crackdown

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Sep 2017

Fish finger fighting fund to aid EU food crackdown

Brussels (AFP) - The EU unveiled plans Tuesday to crack down on food makers selling poor quality versions of products including Coca-Cola, Nutella and fish fingers in different parts of the bloc, particularly in eastern Europe.

Eastern member countries have complained bitterly of "food apartheid" or being treated as "Europe's garbage can" by manufacturers who use the same label for everyday goods that are of far lower standards than in the west.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm and watchdog, will give member states one million euros to help improve tests for comparing products to detect differences in quality.

"These products are presented in exactly the same packaging but for instance the coffee contains less caffeine and more sugar, fish fingers contain less meat in one country than another," EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Vera Jourova told a news conference.

"So when I say I take this issue very seriously I mean it," she added.

The plans also include making sure EU states are fully aware of the way to enforce the bloc's food rules.

The steps unveiled on Tuesday came after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a keynote speech earlier this month that "there can be no second class consumers" in the EU.

"Slovaks do not deserve less fish in their fish fingers. Hungarians less meat in their meals. Czechs less cacao in their chocolate. EU law outlaws such practices already," Juncker said.

Jourova held back from "naming and shaming" the products but said she was waiting for evidence of cheating.

Asked which EU country had the worst fish fingers, she added: "There was an alarmingly low percentage of meat in my country, the Czech Republic, but it can be the case also in some others."

In February Hungary's food safety authority said many food products sold with identical packaging were superior in neighbouring Austria.

Among a list of discrepancies, the agency said the version of Nutella, the children's favourite chocolate-and-hazelnut spread from Ferrero, appeared to be "less creamy" than the Austrian version.

The aroma of Coca-Cola was seemingly "less rich, less complex" in Hungary, the agency said, while the flavour of Nestle's Nesquik cocoa powder was "more harmonious and intense" in Austria.

Contaminated eggs scandal spreads from Europe to Asia

Yahoo - AFP, Danny KEMP, August 11, 2017

Contaminated eggs have been found in at least 11 countries since the scare
went public on August 1, with millions of eggs and egg-based products being
pulled from supermarket shelves

A scandal involving eggs contaminated with insecticide spread to 15 EU countries, Switzerland and as far away as Hong Kong on Friday as the European Commission called for a special meeting on the growing crisis.

Ministers and food safety chiefs from around the European Union are set to meet on September 26 in a bid to get countries to stop "blaming and shaming" each other over the scare involving the chemical fipronil.

Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across Europe and dozens of poultry farms closed since the discovery of fipronil, which can harm human health, was made public on August 1.

The issue has sparked a row between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, the three countries at the epicentre of the crisis, about how long they knew about the problem.

"Blaming and shaming will bring us nowhere and I want to stop this," Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European Commissioner for health and food safety, told AFP as he announced the meeting.

"We need to work together to draw the necessary lessons and move forward instead."

European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said that "this is not, let's be clear, a crisis meeting" and it is being held next month to get "distance to the events".

Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals but is banned by the European Union from use in the food industry.

The EU insists there is no threat to human health, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says that when eaten in large quantities it can harm people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

Dutch admit 'errors'

Brussels said the 15 affected EU countries were Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Britain, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Denmark, along with non-EU Switzerland.

But in a sign the crisis is going global, Brussels also announced that Hong Kong had received some tainted eggs from the Netherlands, with the southern Chinese city becoming the first place in Asia known to be affected.

As well as dealing with the immediate food safety issue, the EU is also seeking to calm tempers over the egg row after a series of divisive crises in the bloc in recent years, from Brexit to migration.

Belgium earlier this week accused the Netherlands of knowing about the fipronil eggs since November 2016 and failing to notify other countries.

On Thursday Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers admitted the government had made "errors" but denied a cover-up.

Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers has admitted that 

mistakes were made in handling the eggs crisis

"We were well aware of a report of the presence of fipronil in the pens of egg-laying hens in November 2016, but there was no indication at the time that fipronil itself was found in the eggs," said Schippers.

A Dutch whistleblower separately said he had told the authorities that Chickfriend, the Dutch company at the centre of the scandal, was illegally using fipronil in the treatment of lice in chicken pens in The Netherlands.

"I am the anonymous whistleblower," Nick Hermens told the NPO public broadcaster.

A Belgian company, Poultry Vision, has said it provided Chickfriend with the chemical.

Dutch and Belgian investigators carried out coordinated raids on several premises on Thursday, arresting two people at Chickfriend.

However, Belgium itself has been forced to admit that it knew about fipronil in eggs back in June but kept it secret for nearly two months because of a criminal investigation.

Fresh discoveries

Fresh discoveries of contaminated eggs have continued daily.

Denmark said on Friday it had found two tonnes of fipronil-tainted scrambled eggs, bringing the total of contaminated eggs to 22 tonnes, mainly from Belgium.

Poland said it had discovered about 40,000 eggs imported from Germany.

French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said that since April the country had sold nearly 250,000 contaminated eggs, imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, but the risk for consumers was "very low" given French eating habits.

The food scare is one of the biggest to hit Europe since the 2013 horsemeat scandal when equine meat was falsely labelled and mis-sold.

Previous food scandals include contamination of chickens and eggs by dioxin in 1999, which began in Belgium, and mad-cow disease -- cattle feed contaminated by the ground-up carcasses of animals infected with a deadly brain disorder -- which ran from roughly 1986-1998 and started in Britain.

Related Article:

Dutch egg probe widens to chicken meat tests

Monsanto drops Syngenta takeover bid

US agrochemicals giant Monsanto has dropped its unwelcome takeover bid for Swiss rival Syngenta. Antitrust concerns were among Syngenta's reasons for rejecting its American suitor, the company said.

Deutsche Welle, 26 Aug 2015

Monsanto farmer in the US

Monsanto, the giant US corporation that produces pesticides and genetically engineered pesticide-resistant seeds, announced Wednesday in New York that it would discontinue its attempt to take over its Swiss rival Syngenta.

"Without a basis for constructive engagement from Syngenta, Monsanto will continue to focus on its growth opportunities built on its existing core business to deliver the next wave of transformational solutions for agriculture," Monsanto said in a statement. It also said it would resume a share buyback program.

Syngenta confirmed it had rejected Monsanto's latest and last offer, which "significantly undervalued [Syngenta] and was fraught with execution risk."

Monsanto's most recent bid, proposed August 18, was worth about $46 billion (40 billion euros). Over the past weeks, Syngenta had repeatedly said it was worried a merger deal between the two giants would be blocked on antitrust grounds.

Share turmoil

Monsanto shared have droped 13 percent between August 18 and 25 amid global market turmoil. With nearly half Monsanto's takeover offer based on a share swap, the merger would have entailed significant exposure to market volatility.

Syngenta said in its statement Wednesday that "recent market volatility" had "highlighted the significant risk" to Syngenta's shareholders associated with the proposed merger.

After the two companies announced merger talks were over, Syngenta shares dropped 18 percent and Monsanto shares jumped by over 8 percent.

Location, location

Monsanto had envisioned shifting the merged company's headquarters from Monsanto's current home base of St Louis, in the midwestern US state of Missouri, to Britain.

The idea, according to Monsanto chief executive Hugh Grant in an April 18 letter to Syngenta executives, was that "our merger will create a new global enterprise focused on future growth across all geographies... The combination of our companies would redefine the future of agriculture."

Syngenta said Monsanto had failed to provide "sufficient clarity" on a number of concerns, including regulatory risk, the tax consequences of shifting the company's registered headquarters from the US to Britain, and the estimated financial benefits of the proposed merger.

"We engaged with Monsanto in good faith and highlighted those key issues which required more concrete information in order to continue a dialogue. We take note of Monsanto's decision," Syngenta chairman Michel Demare said, adding that "our Board is confident Syngenta's long-term prospects remain very attractive."

Mergers and emerging monopolies

Syngenta was itself formed in 2000 as a result of the merger of Swiss-based Novartis Agribusiness and UK-based Zeneca Agrochemicals, which were the agrochemical, seeds and biotech businesses of pharmaceuticals and agrochemical giants Novartis and Zeneca.

Mergers in the agrochemicals industry have led to a situation where only six companies dominate the bulk of global agrochemicals sales, including Syngenta, Bayer CropScience, BASF, Dow Agrosciences, Monsanto and DuPont.

nz/hg (Reuters, AFP)

Related Articles:

Scotland to ban genetically modified crops


"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  Health

Normal good health is turning to simple physics for some of the simplest things. New kinds of foods are being grown with new physics, not chemistry. These will be physic-foods [Kryon name] that are not genetically altered or chemically altered, but benevolently enhanced by physics! This causes a new kind of super growth that can feed the planet in a way it's never been fed before. It will create food that is resistant to absolutely everything - insects, bacteria and disease - all through physics. Who thought of that? What you're expecting in the future regarding health is based upon the past. The big filter of past knowledge keeps you from thinking out of the box. You don't know what you don't know.  ….”

Lithuania bans sale of energy drinks to minors

The Lithuania Tribune, May 15, 2014

Energy drinks | Photo credit: Foter.com, CC BY-SA

Selling energy drinks to minors will be illegal in Lithuania when a new law, passed today, takes effect in November.

Only six parliamentarians abstained from this morning’s vote while 88 supported the food law amendment initiated by Dangute Mikutiene, chairperson of the parliamentary Committee for Health Affairs.

Under the new law, retailers, bartenders and others selling energy drinks must ask young buyers for identification certifying the buyer is at least 18 years.  Buying energy drinks on behalf of underage consumers will also be illegal.

The law also defines energy drinks as non-alcoholic beverages containing more than 150 mg per liter of caffeine or more than 150 mg liter of caffeine and a central nervous system stimulant such as glucuronlacton, inositol, guaranin, ginsenoside, ginkgo extract, or taurine.

The EU has been notified of the amendment.

The European Food Safety Authority last year interviewed 52,000 persons in 27 countries about their consumption of energy drinks.  The survey revealed that the energy drinks are most popular among teenagers comprising 68 percent of consumers.

Update:  Health Care Ministry aims to set a trend  in the European Union

Almantas Kranauskas of the Health Care Ministry said Lithuania may be the first in the EU to ban the sale of energy drinks to children.

“We sent inquiries to other EU countries. A small group did not respond. The ones that responded said they only have guidance restrictions. I cannot provide any official statistics but these are the results of our survey,” Kranauskas of the ministry’s Health Promotion Department told BNS.

“I believe it will be an impulse to other EU countries. Many countries stumble and may be influenced by the energy drink industry, which is very wealthy. This may help them decide,” said Kranauskas.

Kranauskas said the high levels of caffeine in energy drinks can stimulate hyperactivity and dangerous behaviors in children.  He also warned against the addictive nature of caffeine and warned it could be a gateway to other drugs,

“Some articles suggest this can stimulate to start using stronger psychotropic substances, including drugs.”

EU court bans BASF's 'Amflora' GM potato, annuls Commission approval

Deutsche Welle, 13 December 2013

The EU General Court has banned a genetically modified potato developed by German chemicals firm BASF. The decision by the EU's second-highest court annulled an EU Commission decision authorizing the spud, named Amflora.

The General Court had annulled an EU Commission decision authorizing BASF's genetically modified (GM) potato ‘Amflora' because the European Union's executive had departed from the rules governing the authorization procedures, the European Union's second-highest court announced on Friday.

The ruling came as EU members Hungary, France, Austria, Poland and Luxembourg challenged an EU Commission decision in 2010 that had cleared BASF's Amflora potato for industrial starch production and animal feed use.

The Commission gave its approval after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said in a consolidated opinion in 2009 that it believed Amflora posed no threat to human health or the environment. However, the Commission failed to submit the EFSA report, which included dissenting opinions, to two advisory committees made up of representatives of EU member states.

The EU General Court noted that if the Commission had submitted the report in compliance with the rules, the result of the procedure or the content of the decision could have been substantially different.

“Because the Commission significantly failed to fulfill its procedural obligations, the General Court has annulled the contested decision,” the court said in its ruling.

BASF dropped GM spud plans in EU

In 2011, BASF already stopped selling its Amflora potatoes in the EU because the genetically modified (GM) crop was struggling to gain a market share amid widespread popular and political resistance.

In 2012, the German chemical giant announced that it was moving its biotech headquarters to North Carolina and halting the commercialization of GM products for the European market.

Apart from the BASF potato, there is only one other GM crop approved for commercial growing in the EU, which is a strain of maize called MON810 developed by US-based seed giant Monsanto.

uhe/tj (AFP, dpa)

Related Article:

'This is the time!’ Connecticut gov signs first GMO labeling law in US

Swedish salmon sales 'breached EU ban' over dioxins

BBC News, 8 May 2013

Related Stories 

• Horse DNA in 5% of EU-tested beef

The salmon issue again highlights the
complexity of Europe's food chain

Firms in Sweden have sold about 200 tonnes of Baltic salmon in Europe despite an EU ban targeting toxic chemicals in fish, officials say.

The ban does not apply to Baltic salmon sold to domestic consumers in Sweden, Finland and Latvia. But the sellers are required to give advice about safe limits for consumption, set by the EU.

Dioxins found in Baltic herring and salmon prompted the EU ban in 2002.

A French firm imported 103 tonnes of Swedish salmon, but no longer does so.

Pecheries Nordiques told the AFP news agency that its tests had found no problems with the fish, imported in 2011 and 2012. "Nobody told us it was illegal," chief executive Francois Agussol said.

Jan Sjoegren of Sweden's National Food Agency told the BBC that Baltic salmon had also been exported illegally to Denmark and the Netherlands from Sweden.

The agency has alerted the European Commission, which deals with national food safety authorities.

A firm in Karlskrona has been reported to the Swedish customs authorities over the salmon exports, and a firm in Hammaroe is also being investigated, Mr Sjoegren said.

Dioxin hazard

The latest alert about Baltic salmon exports follows a horsemeat contamination scandal in the EU which affected many countries.

"We don't think more salmon is being exported now, but because of the horsemeat scandal we are stepping up action on food fraud," Mr Sjoegren said.

Sweden's National Food Agency says the average intake of dioxins among adult Swedes is well below the "tolerable weekly intake" set by the EU.

Children and young women, it adds, should especially limit their consumption of wild Baltic fish because dioxins pose the most risk to babies and young children.

Dioxins spread by incineration and chemical pollution can accumulate in the body over years and can trigger cancer or reproductive abnormalities.

The European Food Safety Authority says that, on average, Baltic herring and wild Baltic salmon are respectively 3.5 and five times more contaminated with dioxins than non-Baltic herring and farmed salmon.

Germany is hit by food scandal over eggs

Deutsche Welle, 25 february 2013

German health officials are investigating 150 poultry farms suspected of flouting the rules for free-range egg production. Following the horse meat scandal, critics are now calling for a tougher control system for food.

Prosecutors in the city of Oldenburg said they had evidence that, over a number of years, poultry farmers in northern Germany - some of them on organic farms - had systematically violated rules for the production of free range eggs.

Regulations stipulate a minimum of four square meters of space for each animal for a poultry farm to　be able to sell its products as "free range." It has now emerged that several farmers kept more animals than permitted, selling the eggs for a higher price than they otherwise would be able to because of the free range status.

The new agriculture minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Meyer of the environmentalist Green party, said that investigations had begun in 2011, but then more cases had come to light.

The information was made public, following a change of government in Lower Saxony last week.

"We suspect that there has been systematic fraud on a large scale and that is a serious crime," said Christian Meyer.

Records show that controls had long been lacking, with health officials often relying solely on written information submitted by the farmers, instead of leaving their offices to do spot-checks on egg producers.

About 150 farms in Lower Saxony and 50 more in other German states are now under scrutiny. In case of wrong-doing, perpetrators could face hefty fines or even prison sentences.

The latest reports come as a Europe-wide horse meat scandal has　raised concern about the　effectiveness of　controls in the food sector.

In Germany alone, 67 products have been taken off supermarket shelves as they were found to contain horse meat while having been declared beef products. Horse meat often contains traces of medication　deemed potentially dangerous to human health.

EU agriculture ministers are set to meet in Brussels today to discuss improvements to EU wide controls on labeling and tracing food.

rg/rc (dpa, AFP)

Related Articles:

Dutch firms implicated in organic egg scandal

Horsemeat scandal: Ikea withdraws all meatballs from UK stores

Horsemeat scandal: Dutch meat trader could be central figure

Happy pork chops? A new label for humane animal treatment

Halve meat consumption, scientists urge rich world

Horsemeat scandal: Dutch meat trader could be central figure

Jan Fasen confirmed he bought a consignment of horsemeat from two Romanian abattoirs and sold it to French companies

The Guardian, Luke Harding, Ian Traynor in Brussels and Paul Radu in Bucharest,  13 Feb. 2013

French company Spanghero received meat from the Dutch trader seemingly
at the centre of investigations. Photograph: Imago / Barcroft Media

A Dutch meat trader has emerged as a key suspect in Europe's spiralling horse meat scandal following allegations that he was convicted as recently as last year for passing off horse as beef.

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, Jan Fasen, a director of Draap Trading Ltd, confirmed he bought a consignment of horsemeat from two Romanian abattoirs and sold it to French food processors. He insisted he had clearly labelled it as horse.

But on Wednesday Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that Fasen was sentenced in January 2012 for deliberately marketing South American horsemeat as halal-slaughtered Dutch beef and falsifying documents.

Draap Trading Ltd is a Cypriot-registered company, run from the Antwerp area of Belgium, and owned by an offshore vehicle based in the British Virgin Islands. Draap spelled backwards is the Dutch word for horse.

Despite his denials, the food trader appears to be at the centre of investigations into how horsemeat entered the European food chain. In January 2012 he received a one-year jail term, NOS reported. He allegedly falsified papers to deceive customers. A second Dutch meat trader, from the town of Oosterhoutse, was given community service, NOS added.

Draap Trading Ltd delivered meat to the French company Spanghero, which in turn supplied another French company, Comigel. The Findus lasagne products found in Britain containing horsemeat came from a Comigel factory in Luxembourg. Spanghero insisted that the meat delivered to its Castelnaudary plant in southern France had arrived labelled "Beef - originating in EU". The company said: "The meat received was beef meat. This was the order that had been placed. Spanghero did not treat or do anything to the meat."

Frozen meat products were, meanwhile, withdrawn from supermarket shelves in the Netherlands, Belgium and France as fears grew that the mislabelling of frozen foods was much more widespread than Findus lasagne in Britain. "It's very much a pan-European issue now." said an EU diplomat.

The Romanians have loudly protested their innocence amid allegations that they supplied horsemeat as beef. Fasen, who bought the Romanian horsemeat and kept it at a cold storage company in Breda in the Netherlands before selling it on to Spanghero, said he would hand over all his information to the Cypriot authorities, who would then pass it on to the French. Dutch food inspectors went to the Breda warehouse on Wednesday.

"As for the Romanian supplies, they delivered 100%," Fasen told the Guardian. "When they deliver beef, they deliver beef. No problem. When they deliver horse, they deliver horse. There is never, ever horse invoiced as beef. I was 100% sure I was buying horse. We sold it to Spanghero in France as well as to clients in Belgium and Holland. It was all sold as horse. There is no issue."

He added: "Somebody made a mistake and it was definitely not us."

The two Romanian slaughterhouses at the centre of the scandal also insisted the horsemeat sent to Holland was properly labelled. Doly Com and Carmolimp confirmed they had sold the horsemeat to Draap. Iulian Cazacut, owner of Doly Com slaughterhouse, said his firm sold over 350 tonnes of horsemeat to the Cyprus company last year, at a price of €2 a kilo.

Cazacut said: "We worked for two years with this Cyprus company. They started buying beef from us a month ago but previously they only bought horse. The problem is not here, it is somewhere out there. We didn't send minced meat. We only sent unprocessed meat."

The scandal has focused attention on the murky pan-European supply chain for meat products, which stretches from abattoirs to supermarkets via mysterious offshore companies.

Offshore Secrets

An investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed yesterday that that Draap Trading Ltd was registered in 2008 in Limassol, Cyprus. Its sole shareholder is Hermes Guardian Ltd, an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands. A Draap representative, Andreas Mercruri, refused to disclose the beneficial ownership of the company.

Speaking from Cyprus, he told OCCRP: "I'm sorry but with everything that is going on at the moment we are not able to comment on anything at this time." Mercruri answered from the offices of Trident Trust , a Cyprus firm that provides company formation and incorporation services on the island. Trident Trust mentions on its website that beneficial ownership information of the companies it incorporates is not disclosed to any regulatory authority

The same Hermes Guardian company is a shareholder in at least a dozen other Cyprus, Panamanian and Russian based companies.

Cyprus company records indicate a Trident Trust company as a secretary of Draap Trading while its director is another Cyprus company by the name of Guardstand Limited. The latter's paperwork points to a link with Russian business.

Authorities in Romania have suggested that international criminal networks may be involved in the opaque meat trading business. Sorin Minea, head of Romalimenta, the Romanian food industry federation, described France's consumer affairs minister, Benoît Hamon, as an "idiot" after he suggested Romanians may have been responsible for "a case of fraud".

Minea told the Guardian: "There is an international mafia ring behind this problem. I don't know who they may be, or whether any Romanians are involved. But if you think about it, there were five intermediaries so I'm sure that an international network is involved."

He also angrily dismissed the idea that recent European legislation banning horses and carts from Romania's roads had led to a glut of horsemeat: "What was said, that Romania has been slaughtering millions of horses, is a complete aberration. Romania does not have millions of horses at its disposal to slaughter. If we had done that, perhaps we would be better off financially now."

Additional reporting by Roberta Radu and Kim Willsher in Paris

One scientist called racehorses from the US "walking pharmacies"

Related Articles:

Nestle removes beef pasta meals after finding horsemeat - New

Horsemeat scandal: FSA hands evidence to Europol

Horsemeat scandal linked to secret network of firms

Amsterdam steakhouse boss admits selling horse for 63 years

Horsemeat scandal: France blames processor Spanghero

Amsterdam steakhouse caught selling horse

UK vets have 'repeatedly raised concerns' over bute in food