Title:
Helping European Farmers After the E. Coli Outbreak
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
German health officials announced on June tenth that
bean sprouts were the cause of Europe's deadly
outbreak of E. coli bacteria. E. coli infections
killed at least thirty people since late May. Nearly
three thousand others were sickened. Most of the
victims were in Germany. After the announcement,
Russia said it will lift its ban on European Union
vegetables in return for EU safety guarantees. At
first, German officials suggested that cucumbers
from Spain were to blame. Russia and other countries
quickly banned vegetable imports from Spain and
other European countries. The Spanish agriculture
minister, Rosa Aguilar, demanded that Germany pay
for her country's losses.John Dalli of Malta is the
European Union's commissioner for health and
consumer policy. He said a rush to judgment "spreads
unjustified fears in the population all over Europe,
and creates problems for our food producers selling
products in the EU and outside of the EU."Some
critics accused Russia of using the issue to try to
help its effort to join the World Trade
Organization. Russia is the largest economy without
membership in the WTO. EU Farm Commissioner Dacian
Ciolos proposed giving European farmers two hundred
twenty million dollars in aid. The goal was to help
European farmers recover at least fifty percent of
their losses. By June eighth, Mr. Ciolos had raised
the amount to over three hundred million dollars.
The E. coli outbreak was not the only issue
troubling Europe. European governments and the
International Monetary Fund were considering as much
as sixty-five billion dollars in new loans to
Greece. Some officials admitted that earlier rescue
loans were not enough. Thousands of government
workers protested spending cuts approved by the
Greek cabinet to reduce budget deficits. Separately,
French Finance Minster Christine Lagarde continued
her campaign to become the next head of the IMF. She
visited China after traveling to India. Mexican
central bank chief Agustin Carstens was seeking to
become the first non-European to lead the
international lender.Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned
as IMF managing director because of charges of
attempted rape of a hotel maid in New York. He
pleaded not guilty during a court appearance on June
sixth. For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal.
You can learn American English and much more every
day at voaspecialenglish.com.
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personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
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is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
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