Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the EU on 1 May.

According to the newspaper, the committee’s report said that because the new member states struggle with weaknesses including structural fragmentation and a lack of capital investment, these countries are unlikely to be in a position to undermine agricultural markets in the EU.

However, it added that the ability of the new members to implement the transitional agri-food measures was of critical importance, as the discovery of sub-standard food in circulation in the single market would bring the whole system into disrepute.

“Lax safety standards in the new member states could undermine consumer confidence in all food products across the whole of the EU. We recommend that the UK government use all its influence to ensure food safety standards continue to be upheld,” said the committee.

In fact, it went one step further and said the UK government should press the European Commission to address the adequacy of the accession countries’ internal scrutiny systems.

The MPs said it is still too early to determine what the full impact of accession will be.

It did add that it seemed, however, that fears of markets being immediately flooded by products from the new members were not grounded.

Another warning by the committee was: “We consider that the agricultural potential of the new members will not be realised until their farming sector is restructured and such restructuring will take some years to complete.”

All was not negative and the committee’s report ended: “We also believe the UK government should explore ways in which it can use its existing knowledge and experience to assist the new members in achieving their environmental targets.”