MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The EU authorities are not planning to penalize Belgium or the Netherlands, which were late in reporting the contamination of eggs with insecticide known as fipronil, and are focusing on possibilities for improvement of the communication flows instead, Vytenis Andriukaitis, a member of the EU Commission in charge of Health and Food Safety said on Tuesday.
"It's not about sanctions," Andriukaitis said, when asked whether the Netherlands and Belgium would be sanctioned over reporting the contamination threat too late.
Andriukaitis said that the EU authorities would improve the flow of information between the Commission and member states and simplify the procedure of threat assessment in similar crises.
The commissioner also said that a possibility of appointing a "food safety officer" in every country would be considered to accelerate the exchange of information.
In July, millions of eggs were recalled from supermarket shelves when it emerged that some farms had been using fipronil, which under EU law cannot be used at the places where the food intended for human consumption is produced. Earlier on Tuesday, representatives of all 28 EU countries met to discuss the situation.
