Wednesday, 16th September 2009
Scottish MEPs meet Commissioner Vassiliou
The meeting, brokered by Struan Stevenson, was attended by 5 Scottish MEPs: Struan Stevenson (Con), George Lyon (Lib/Dem), Ian Hudghton (SNP), Alyn Smith (SNP) and Catherine Stihler (Lab). Three members of Mrs Vassiliou's Cabinet were present too.
Main points arising from the meeting:
• We were disappointed that the commissioner was not for turning and was unable offer any further concessions.
• We asked that breeding ewes born and spending their entire life on a holding should not require ID as there is no benefit to disease control. She replied that it was necessary in case they got mixed up with sheep from neighbouring holdings.
• We pressed her to give a commitment to hold a review of EID within three years so that any major changes could be legislated for. She said this was not possible.
• We pressed her to set out clearly the tolerances the commission would allow when it came to cross compliance and she pointed out that this was a matter for the Agricultural Commissioner and that local conditions would also require to be taken into account by local inspectors.
• We pressed her to provide funding for farmers to implement the scheme and she pointed out that the Scottish Government would be able to use SRDP funding to provide assistance. She said other member states such as Spain and Italy had given financial assistance to implement the scheme.
• She clarified that other member states had insisted on the UK giving a commitment that they would not ask for further concessions until EID was implemented as a pre-condition of them agreeing to the last concessions but she made it clear that this left the door open for the UK Government to open up the debate in Council again once implementation phase had started.
• She reminded us that there is a two year gradual implementation process for EID up until December 31st 2011.
Commenting after the meeting Struan Stevenson said:
"It seemed like the Commissioner and her team were dead set on holding their position come what may. There was no way she was going to give in to further concessions. It seems incredible that the Commission will insist on breeding ewes being tagged even when they will never leave the holding on which they were born and therefore could pose no risk of spreading disease. Mrs Vassiliou's explanation that such flocks could get mixed up with neighbouring flocks seems to ignore the physical conditions on Scotland's hill farms, where neighbouring hefted flocks can often be on the other side of a mountain! Surely it is not rocket science simply to close down neighbouring farms if an outbreak of disease occurs?
"The Commissioner and her team were equally unsympathetic when we raised the question of black losses....sheep that die and disappear on the hills and uplands of Scotland. These losses occur all the time and will affect the annual count of the flock under the EID regulations. However, the Commissioner was unmoved by this information and would give no concessions on cross-compliance thresholds or guarantees that farmers will not lose part of their single farm payments due to missing sheep.
"Altogether it was a disappointing, although a fairly predictable outcome to our meeting. It is very sad that the Commission seem so determined to introduce a system which I believe is impractical, expensive and unnecessary."
