Euro MP backs move for moratorium on electronic tag penalties for local farmers

2.02.53pm GMT Fri 26th Feb 2010

Liz Lynne MEP discussing fears over sheep tags with Shropshire farmer Richard Huffer at Ludlow livestock market

Lib Dem Euro MP Liz Lynne has strongly backed a call in Brussels this week for a moratorium on penalties while technical problems with electronic sheep tags are ironed out.

Despite some late concessions, the electronic tagging (EID) scheme for sheep and goats was introduced across the EU at the beginning of January, but many farmers are continuing to find that both the fixed and hand held tagging readers are very unreliable.

Liberal Democrat MEPs called for a moratorium at a meeting of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee this week and also put down amendments to the CAP Simplification Report currently before the Committee calling for the criteria and penalties for non-compliance to be applied in a more proportionate way.

Liz Lynne MEP said: "There are many complaints from farmers here and in Wales and Scotland that the system is unfair and heavy handed.

"The new EID tagging machines often do not work properly, while some farmers are being hit with huge deductions of their Single Farm Payments for very small number of incorrect livestock passports or other minor infringements.

"The fines involved should reflect the size of business and the percentage of transgressions. I also believe that despite the late concessions, the EID scheme is still proving a huge problem for many small livestock farmers because of factors entirely outside their control. A moratorium on penalties while teething troubles are resolved is surely fair.

"I hope that the Commission will take these points on board and stress to English and Welsh farming ministers that these rules should be applied fairly and transparently.

"I recognise that tags will potentially allow sheep breeders to keep more detailed records, but only if they work properly. Many small sheep farms in Shropshire, Herefordshire, around the Malverns and Staffordshire, particularly upland farmers, are still struggling to fund these extra costs in a difficult winter.

"I have never been convinced that we need to tag sheep in the way we do cattle. But now that the scheme has been launched, it is vital that technical problems are sorted out without imposing even bigger and unfair costs on hard pressed local farmers."

ENDS