EU Commissioner slams E.coli crisis management

The mess provoked by the E.coli outbreak in Europe, with governments taking over-hasty unilateral action and communication failures between ministries and EU agencies, has irritated the EU’s Health Commissioner John Dalli.

On Tuesday, he said as much in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and, speaking to our correspondent after an EU farm ministers meeting, he expressed regret at the damage the flawed crisis management has caused.

“I believe that Germany took the decisions that it thought they should take at that particular point in time and I made a very important point in parliament as well; it is very different from standing in hindsight in judgement of somebody who has taken a decision and being in the eye of the storm when a crisis is running, and decisions need to be taken.

“We have to be very careful that in our judgements and criticisms we do not frighten decision-makers from taking the right decisions that will be of interest finally in the health of the patients,” he said.

On Wednesday, Dalli travels to Berlin for a crisis meeting that will attempt to pin down the causes and identify new procedures to deal with food contamination and decide on compensation for farmers.

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