The president of the PPCV, Carlos Mazón, has asked “to toughen the EU sanctions on those who fail to comply with the cold protocol and to reinforce the inspections at the entry of citrus fruits into the EU” in the bilateral and monographic meeting that he has held with the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, together with the spokesperson for the PP in the European Parliament, Dolors Monserrat.
The president of the popular Valencians has insisted to the European commissioner “on the necessary urgency to protect the Valencian orange and shorten the deadlines as much as possible for the mandatory cold treatment for all South African oranges entering Europe” after the approval last week by the EU’s Plant Health Standing Committee.
In this sense, Carlos Mazón has requested that “hardening sanctions be studied against those who import illegally and that inspection work be immediately activated to prevent the flow of exports from being advanced as much as possible in the coming days to circumvent that measure. We have to shorten the deadlines because you can’t continue playing with illegal advantages”.
Mazón has indicated that “it is an important step for the protection of our citrus fruits, to prevent the spread of pests and the defense of the quality of our fruits and vegetables, among which the orange has a fundamental weight. Now, with this cold treatment, the exporting company is forced to apply a series of phytosanitary criteria that ensure that the product reaches the country of destination without any type of pest.”
The popular leader has called for “equal treatment of all products, with the same demands, with equal treatment of agri-food products from our Community with respect to those from outside Europe to avoid unfair competition that is sinking the Valencian economy. We will always defend the interests of the Valencian countryside in Brussels, before the Sánchez government and wherever necessary”.
He has also transferred to the European commissioner the agonizing situation in which the Valencian countryside finds itself. “The Community leads the abandonment at European level of cultivated land and this dramatic situation is compounded by the problems of the spread of uncontrolled pests, the rise in energy and tax costs and the shortage of water for irrigation.”
Finally, Carlos Mazón, who is attending the European PP Congress in Rotterdam, highlighted the good harmony with the commissioner “which will be reinforced in the future”.
