Urgent need for more European coordination

An analysis of what was went wrong and what must now be done was carried out during the European Parliament debate on the E. coli crisis. According to Frieda Brepoels, N-VA Member of the European Parliament, there isn’t only a problem with the German government, but also with the competent European agencies, i.e. the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA): "By prematurely drawing conclusions and making rash statements, various Member States and producers were unfairly accused, with irreparable damage as a result. The ECDC and EFSA also waited too long before sending in experts." Brepoels believes that Europe must accept its responsibilities and must make resources from the European agricultural budget available to compensate the farmers. Finding the cause is also a high priority issue: "We must learn the necessary lessons from this crisis. I welcome this in the sense that European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy Dalli now recognizes that competent regional actors, i.e. the Länder, must be more involved in coordinating the information."