MEPs fight on to stop electronic sheep tagging

10.10.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 4th Sep 2008

Local Euro-MP Liz Lynne is backing a new campaign to stop the compulsory electronic tagging (EID) of sheep and goats.

The EID scheme has attracted severe criticism from farmers groups because it is feared that the extra cost and administration will seriously harm the sheep-farming sector, forcing many to give it up altogether.

A cross-party group of MEPs has launched a Written Declaration this week at the European Parliament in Brussels. The Declaration will prompt a European Parliamentary debate on the subject if signed by over half the 785 MEPs.

Liz Lynne MEP, Liberal Democrat Agriculture Spokesperson for England and Wales in the European Parliament, feels that individual electronic tagging is unnecessary and overbearing. Speaking today she said:

"I regret that EU agriculture ministers and many MEPs voted in favour of EID earlier this year, but we must fight on to stop it being implemented.

"Farmers and experts agree that EID would add no extra value or security to existing UK arrangements. The batch-tagging system offers sufficient security and should not be changed.

"The delay in implementation until December 2009 and calls for extra funding to help farmers earlier this year were scant consolation for a farming sector which is already struggling to attract a new generation. Sheep farming already offers low financial returns and added financial and administrative pressure could prove the killer blow."

A report published last week by the Country Land and Business Association and the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association claims that EID would not fulfill its original goal of improving sheep traceability in the aftermath of the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease crisis. It also stated that if farmers were forced to abandon the sheep sector, under-grazing could lead to overgrown areas, restricting public countryside access and damaging rural tourism.

ENDS

Notes:

Text of the Written declaration on the electronic identification system for sheep (EID) which Liz Lynne signed today:

The European Parliament,

• having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas sheep and goat farming is important to the social, environmental and economic fabric of the EU,

B. whereas the sheep sector is in decline owing to lack of prosperity; whereas the next generation is reluctant to enter sheep production; and whereas, if this is left to continue, the skills base will be lost,

1. Calls on the Commission to recognise that batch recording and movement standstills of sheep are more cost-effective forms of protection from disease spread than EID and individual movement recording;

2. Calls on the Commission to recognise that producer incomes in the sheep sector are characteristically low and that the implementation of EID will result in a significant cost to a sector that can ill afford a further regulatory burden;

3. Calls on the Commission to make sheep EID voluntary but not mandatory;

4. Calls on the Commission to recognise that the implementation of EID and individual recording of sheep will affect the competitiveness of the EU sheep sector on the world market;

5. Calls on the Commission to recognise that there are significant practical problems that prevent the effective operation of EID in extensive livestock systems and within climatic conditions commonly experienced in northern Europe;

6. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council, the Commission and the parliaments and governments of the Member States.