What are the main outstanding issues in the ongoing negotiations on food safety with the candidate countries?
Current key issues are: • the capacity of the candidate countries to guarantee sufficient external border controls; • compliance with the high level of EU health protection rules regarding BSE, • bringing food processing establishments up to EU standards, • respect of the EU’s Animal Welfare rules. 4a. What is the problem with Border Inspection Posts? Currently there are some 285 EU Border Inspection Posts (BIPs) operated by national authorities. Most of these are ports and airports, others are road or rail links located in particular at the eastern borders of the Union. The accession of the 12 candidate countries would move the eastern frontier to the borders with Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldavia and Turkey. Candidate countries have proposed a total of 87 BIPs to be approved for checking imports into the Union. On the question of Border Inspection Posts at the future external borders, the EU has made clear that no compromise concerning facilities or procedures would be possible. As
