Cheese Chair Rogerson slams EU Commision
North Cornwall MP and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cheese, Dan Rogerson today (Thursday) denounced the European Commission for 'playing fast and loose with lives and livelihoods'.
The EU censured Lancashire-based Bowland Dairy products with a 'Rapid Alert Notice' three months ago. The company took the Commission to the European Court of First Instance and won their case, forcing Commissioners to remove the notice.
Yet the Commission recently halted all Bowland cheese sales across Europe, as it threatens to take the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) to court for letting standards slip.
Bowland has had to bring in the receivers and lay of its 22 staff.
Commenting, Dan Rogerson MP said:
"The Commission have shown a callous disregard for the real people affected by their legal and political wrangle with the UK Government.
"Surely EU officials should have kept from 'naming and shaming' Bowland until their dispute with the Food Standards Agency was resolved.
"UK producers are known for their rigorous standards of hygiene and outstanding produce. The Commission may quite wrongly have jeopardised 22 jobs – and the reputation of the UK cheese industry – by pre-empting the outcome of a court case, which should have been given the chance to conclude."
