The European Commission will send negotiators to Moscow in order to push lifting a ban on vegetable imports from the EU following an E. coli outbreak, European Commission deputy spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen said on Monday.
"The mission headed by the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli, is heading to Russia to remove the remaining obstacles so that safe and high quality vegetables from the European Union could easily be exported to Russia," Hansen said.
Russia suspended fruit and vegetable imports from the European Union early in June after the highly virulent strain of the E. coli bacteria had killed over 40 people in Europe. The move sparked criticism from EU officials for going against World Trade Organization policy. Russia pledged to keep the embargo until the source of infection was identified.
Hansen said the threat of the further outbreak was fully eliminated and there were no reasons for prolonging the embargo as the source of the virus had been identified.
The virus is reported to be traced to bean sprouts grown on a farm in Germany's Lower Saxony region, some 70 km (40 miles) south of Hamburg.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the country will lift the ban after it receives guarantees from Brussels that the supplies are safe.
On Sunday, Russia's sanitary chief Gennady Onishchenko said that the Rome Research Center, which cooperates with the World Health Organization, had already sent the E.coli's strain to Russia. Moscow has yet to receive the strain, Onishchenko said.
