PRAGUE: Poor food and animal hygiene standards are among the biggest problems facing many of the countries that will enter the European Union in less than six months’ time.

In a report on the progress being made by the new members this week the European Commission had harsh words for all 10 of them — Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Six of the countries were given formal warnings requiring them to take urgent steps to remedy food safety problems before the accession date of May 1, 2004.

Most of these were former Soviet-bloc states which are having trouble applying EU hygiene standards, among the highest in the world.

For example abattoirs and wholesale slaughterhouses are often antiquated and lack cold stores, with a consequent risk of the spread of dangerous bacteria such as salmonella.

In Poland the agriculture ministry acknowledges only 121 businesses in the meat industry out of about 4,000 fully meet EU norms. Figures elsewhere are better but far from satisfactory: in Slovakia only 40 per cent of abattoirs met EU norms at the end of October.

Milk production is another black spot though standards have risen with the massive arrival of foreign investment. In Poland only 12 per cent of dairies meet the EU requirements.

Almost everywhere there is inadequate inspection: shortages of funds mean that biological surveys are rare so cereals, fruit and vegetables contain too many pesticide residues.

Veterinary services in Lithuania, Poland and Malta are too thinly stretched to combat effectively such conditions as “mad cow” disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE).

Even if the controls are in place the results are far from ideal.

“Many inspectors still work as they did under communism, they don’t worry about details, yet in this business detail is very important,” according to Daniel Hach, a European Commission expert in Bratislava.

The EU has taken steps to protect its consumers from products that may be dangerous to health. It can ban the sale of products from a business, region or state and there are provisions making it possible to exclude new member states from entire market sectors.

Several of the newcomers have already started taking radical steps.

“Firms that don’t meet EU hygiene standards will be closed on January 1 2004, four months before joining date,” said the Czech agriculture ministry.

Poland has negotiated a transition period of two to three years for several hundred businesses, during which they will not be allowed to sell to other EU states, though they can continue to supply other countries — such as Algeria, Poland’s main client for dairy products.—AFP