A French opposition parliamentarian, Mr Jean-Jacques Guillet, has called for a commission of inquiry into the animal feed scandal, in which French companies mixed sewage sludge with pig and poultry food.
Mr Guillet's denunciation of the French government yesterday for acting irresponsibly coincided with the first response by French authorities to an urgent letter sent on August 12th by the EU Commission.
The Directorate General of Competition, Consumer Affairs and the Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF), part of the French Ministry of the Economy, admitted that it had found four incidents at the end of 1998 and in early 1999 in which animal sewage found its way into three renderers (which reduce bone and offal to chicken and pig feed) and to one gelatine manufacturer.
But it denied that human sewage, heavy metals or pesticides entered the food chain, as reported by the German television station ARD last week.
"The French authorities sent warning letters to the professionals who were using sludge in their animal meal, telling them to stop the practice immediately," the letter said. "The sludge was stored or incinerated."
The DGCCRF letter claimed that the "dysfunctions" it found could have no ill-health effects and that "the elements incorporated (in the animal feed) had come from the waste of animals that were themselves fit for human consumption, and not from water treatment plants outside the companies."
A subsequent heat treatment "ensures their harmlessness in conformity with community regulations," it concluded.
The EU Commission responded within hours to the DGCCRF letter, announcing that it would send veterinary officials to France this week to verify the French statement.
Mr Guillet is the secretary general of the Rally for France (RPF), a Euro-sceptical Gaullist party led by the former Interior Minister, Mr Charles Pasqua. Mr Pasqua is allied with six Fianna Fail MEPs in the European parliament.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Guillet said that European integration has encouraged governments to abdicate responsibility to higher authority.
"In France they say, `It's a European problem so the Brussels Commission must deal with it.' But Europe is not at fault; the French state is at fault. We shall demand a commission of inquiry."
The French cabinet is on holiday until next week and a spokeswoman at the DGCCRF declined to say who signed the letter received by the EU Commission yesterday. She provided excerpts from the letter, but said the full text was "private".
Mr Guillet said that in view of the gravity of the crisis, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin ought to have made a statement. He said that up to 30 tonnes of tainted animal feed was still being stored at Plouivy, in Brittany, and that local officials were at a loss what to do. "I have the impression that the state is protecting the companies in question," he said. "They ought to be shut down."
Mr Guillet said the tainted animal feed scandal - like earlier crises over "mad cow" disease and dioxin in poultry - proved that border controls had to be re-established within Europe.
"On the continent, a product or an animal goes from France to Brussels with no problem whatsoever. The Germans are reproaching us for sending suspect animals to them."
The European Commission had banned US hormone-fed beef on the grounds that health concerns override free trade, Mr Guillet said. "They should be consistent; if the health of consumers is paramount, then we must re-establish border controls inside Europe."
No other French political party has responded to the animal feed scandal. "They are silent out of embarrassment," Mr Guillet said.
"For them, the scandal is a side-effect of globalisation and free markets, part of the risks of the trade. They think we'll have these sorts of problems for a while and that in the long run the market will sort it out. We do not accept this. We don't have blind faith in the market."
