A delegation from the Polish government failed to present the EU with a list of dairy plants claimed to satisfy European sanitary standards at a meeting in Brussels last month. Instead it proposed that the EU inspects its four best plants on an individual basis.
EU regulations concerning imports from third countries stipulate that a list of dairy plants authorised for export should be supplied, thereafter EU inspectors carry out only random tests to verify the credibility of the list.
The Polish proposal means that those dairies which pass tests are not punished along with those that do not meet requirements. But it defies the regulations and demands extra resources.
In December 1997 the EU banned Polish milk exports to member states because dairy farms did not comply with production hygiene criteria or milk quality standards. If the required list was to be produced, that the current ban could be lifted within a month.