Reducing the risks of antibiotic resistance being passed to humans through animal meat

"This is a big step for public health. We will reduce the consumption of antibiotics in farm animals, which are an important source of antibiotic resistance then transmitted to humans. Antibiotic resistance is a real Sword of Damocles, which threatens to send our health system back to the Middle Ages", said Françoise Grossetête MEP, author of the new Veterinary Medicines Regulation, which the European Parliament’s Environment Committee adopted today, giving its consent to the trilogue agreement.

One of the main objectives of the Regulation is to fight the abuse of the use of antibiotics on farms, which are used particularly to boost animal performance. It suggests restricting the preventive use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine and drawing up a list of ‘critical’ antibiotics that can only be used in the field of human medicine.

The Regulation also encourages innovation in the area of antimicrobials through incentives such as longer periods of protection for the technical documentation of new drugs.

One of the priorities for the EPP Group was also to impose the reciprocity of European standards for the use of antibiotics in imported foods. "Our trading partners who want to continue importing to Europe will also, for example, have to ban the use of antibiotics as growth factors", said Françoise Grossetête.

"The text adopted today is a concrete example of a Europe that protects its citizens. We cannot continue to impose standards on European breeders that our partners do not respect. It is time for Europe to make itself heard and to take firm world leadership in the fight against antimicrobial resistance."