"The Commission has confidence in the safety of Lithuanian dairy products," spokesman Frederic Vincent in charge of health told BNS on Monday. In his words, Brussels has not yet received any information from Russia.
Vincent emphasized that the EU food safety system ensured a high level of consumer protection.
"In certain cases, the EU believes that certain standards of the Russian Federation are unnecessarily strict and go beyond what is scientifically necessary to safeguard the protection of consumers. The Commission calls the RF for proportionate action following any possible detection, still to be confirmed by the Russian side, of deviation from certain Russian Federation sanitary standards in dairy products from Lithuania," Vincent said.
"In accordance with the Russian Federation's WTO commitments, any restriction introduced by Russia based on sanitary grounds needs to be justified by a demonstration of the risk at stake, and the measure taken must be proportionate to the level of risk identified," he added.
The Russian consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor announced on its website on Monday that it had suspended Lithuanian dairy product imports, citing weakened quality controls in Lithuania as the reason.
Lithuania's officials say they haven't yet received any confirmation from Moscow.
