Jean luc dehaene , the prime minister of Belgium, was Europe's longest serving premier. A few days ago, he had to resign following a global panic over the quality of Belgian dairy products. Three years after the mad cow disease crisis, Europe is in the thick of another food safety scare.

As a result, international trade stands crippled, public health has been endangered and there is a hue and cry against banning certain food products even in countries as far off as Malaysia and Japan. The agricultural sector in Belgium will definitely suffer. All this is a glaring example that the food safety measures and regulations are in a shambles in the European Union ( eu ). There is no international mechanism to implement common standards across the eu . Instead, eu member states insist upon retaining responsibility for common standards set in Brussels. National enforcement, however, is poorly coordinated, as revealed by the present scenario.

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