On 30 September 2014, Vytenis Andriukaitis, Member designate of the EC in charge of Health and Food safety, was heard by the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food safety of the European Parliament to test his general competences, European commitment and specific expertise related to his portfolio. Vytenis Andriukaitis had the opportunity to make an opening statement, he took part in a question and answer session and made a closing statement. Although the Parliament can only vote on the Commission as a whole, a negative assessment of one of the candidates has in the past already led to the candidacy being withdrawn and replaced. Vytenis Andriukaitis was Vice-President of the Lithuanian Parliament from 2001 to 2004 and from 2008 to 2012, then Lithuanian Minister for Health from 2012 to 2014.

Brussels

exchange of views

Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

KONEČNÁ, Kateřina (The Left, CZ)

BEARDER, Catherine (Renew, UK)

ANDRIUKAITIS, Vytenis (LT, EC)

hearing

LIESE, Peter (EPP, DE)

D'ORNANO, Mireille (EFDD, FR)

PARGNEAUX, Gilles (S&D, FR)

AUKEN, Margrete (Greens/EFA, DK)

hearing of Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS (T)

Hearing of Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS (Lithuania), Commissioner-designate for Health and Food Safety: MEPs questions & answers

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/12179255/I093028Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

Title: Hearing of Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS, Commissioner-designate in charge of Health and Food Safety: MEPs questions &amp; answers

SOUNDBITE (German), Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), How are you going to deal with cloning of animals for the purposes of food and food stuffs? And the second point is the non-commercialisation of the human body. We have legislation on organs, for example, and Parliament a while ago had asked when it comes to cells and tissues where there have been dramatic developments for example trade in certain cells, how are you going to take up initiatives to deal with the points the Parliament has concerns on?

SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian), Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS, Commissioner-designate in charge of Health and Food Safety, Let me base myself on the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which states very clearly that the human body and human organs can in no way be commercialised. It cannot be the item of financial or commercial operations.

SOUNDBITE (French), Gilles PARGNEAUX (S&amp;D, FR), 19 Member States are against GMOs but in recent years has been some pressure or there are some evasive measures people are against, so could we have a clearer list for these reasons for banning GMOs so that we can have more binding measures to stop us contaminating conventional crops from neighbouring crops?

SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian), Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS, Commissioner-designate in charge of Health and Food Safety , I personally agree with your position to a very large extent. First of all, this is an issue of subsidiarity, this is an issue to prove the independence and subsidiarity of the Member States, a question of GMOs clearly belongs to the competence of Member States, and the package concerning the crops is oriented in that direction. The Member States have to adopt their own decisions. They do not have to wait for a mechanism from the Commission, even when the Member States do not agree with it .

SOUNDBITE (English), Catherine BEARDER (ALDE, UK), Will you therefore consider mainstreaming sexual reproductive health and rights into the future European public health strategies?

SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian), Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS, Commissioner-designate in charge of Health and Food Safety,  In the 5 upcoming years we have to find some sophisticated measures to diminish these differences and I think that Europe would become closer to citizens in that way.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), KONE&#268;N&#193; Kate&#345;ina (GUE/NGL, CZ), We are about to adopt the transatlantic agreement which has a lot of questions unanswered and I see this as the most risky agreement and it will have its bearing on health and the lives of citizens in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian), Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS, Commissioner-designate in charge of Health and Food Safety, I think this is a very clear signal, personally me I will not make any compromise, I cannot make any compromise on this issue whether it's hormones in meat or a discussion on chlorine baths for poultry, that would be the same answer: the EU standards are the highest and the best example of how we can protect peoples' health in this industrialised era. So my position is clear.

SOUNDBITE (French), Mireille D&apos;ORNANO (NI, FR), How do you plan to protect our products and our food from an American industry which is less prudent?

SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian), Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS, Commissioner-designate in charge of Health and Food Safety, My answer is NO, NO to the lowering or ignoring of our safety standards, NO. That cannot be done.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Boles&#322;aw G. PIECHA (ECR, PL), Unfortunately, Mr JUNCKER gave the supervision of the European Medicines Agency to the Commissioner for Industry, hence I tend to think that EMA no longer stands to defend the interests of the patients but defending the interests of major medicinal companies. What is your reaction?

SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian), Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS, Commissioner-designate in charge of Health and Food Safety, In the European Medicines Agency and its individual structures we have representatives of our Directorate General, we have already stated that together with Ms Bienkowska we wil adopt decisions together. A decision can be adopted only when 2 Commissioners signed it.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrete AUKEN (Greens/EFA, DK), Will you work towards horizontal, scientific, hazard-based criteria for the identification of Endocrine Disrupters or we fear some of us, will you just take a political approach that seeks above all to minimise the impacts on business?

SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian), Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS, Commissioner-designate in charge of Health and Food Safety, Thinking in medical terms we have to be very sensitive and vigilant cause we may talk about effects on further generations to come so we have to be very determined here and base our decisions on objective scientific criteria.