NFUS Press Release on EU sheep proposals

FIGHT ON DAMAGING EU SHEEP PROPOSALS GOES ON

NFU Scotland remains 100 percent committed to fighting damaging EU proposals on sheep electronic identification and movement recording that could see hundreds of Scottish farmers walk away from the industry if they are implemented in their current form.

At a council meeting of agricultural ministers in Luxembourg yesterday (22 June), changes to the EU regulations on sheep identification and movement recording, due to come into force from the end of this year, were raised under Any Other Business by the UK Government. Despite support from Member States including Ireland, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia, the UK amendment was not accepted by the lead Commissioner, Androulla Vassiliou.

NFU Scotland President Jim McLaren said:

“While yesterday’s debate was a setback, the fight for change goes on. Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead was in Luxembourg yesterday for the debate and I have discussed with him this morning the outcome of that meeting.

“I remain convinced that scope for considerable compromise on these damaging proposals still exists. These regulations, if unchecked, will bring a move to electronic tagging and the need to record the movement of every individual sheep. That is an unacceptable level of cost and bureaucracy for no real benefit and we owe it to our members to fight these proposals tooth and nail.

“The compromise discussed yesterday, whereby sheep would only require electronic tagging when they left the holding of birth, was a common sense approach that would help mitigate the majority of the cost associated with the proposals. It is disappointing that the Commissioner did not see it that way.

“We will be requesting a meeting with Commissioner Vassiliou as soon as possible at which we will explain to her, in clear terms, that her proposals will deliver no additional benefit in terms of animal disease traceability. Instead, they run the risk of ruining the sheep sector in major sheep producing nations such as ours. We will want to see her stand by her offer of flexibility in implementing the regulation, made at the previous council meeting, if sheep production in this country is to move forward.

“At the same time, the campaign undertaken by the UK industry aimed at getting the EU and other Member States to realise the dangers in these proposals must continue. We need to build on the success we have had in convincing other farming groups of the threat posed by the forthcoming regulations and encouraging them to lobby their own ministers.

“We know we have the full backing of our membership in pursuing this issue. The sense of frustration farmers have with these proposals is growing the closer we get to the planned implementation date in January 2010 and co-ordinated protest at a European level may yet be required.”