MEPs voted in support for European Commission’s proposals to make bovine EID voluntary at the plenary session in Strasbourg yesterday (11 September), rejecting an amendment to introduce mandatory EID in 10 years. The situation will be reviewed in five years’ time, with the Commission producing a study on the effectiveness of the voluntary system.
Member states will be able to make the system compulsory under national law, but only once they have consulted with the beef industry.
The MEPs also voted in support of an amendment put forward by the UK National Farmers’ Union (NFU) that there should be no financial penalties under cross compliance rules for faulty tags and inaccurate electronic readers.
Alyn Smith MEP, Scottish full member of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, said it was good to see that the European Commission appeared to have learnt some lessons from mandatory EID for sheep and goats, which has turned into a nightmare for UK farmers.
“We argued that introducing a pan-EU mandatory system immediately was likely to be costly, lead to technological difficulties, and contribute little added value to disease control, all at the cost of ill-will from our farmers, who end up having such a system foisted upon them,” he explained.
“That’s why it’s important that the same mistakes are not made with EID for cattle – under this proposal, EID will be a bottom-up farmer-driven process, with take-up fundamentally shaped by whether farmers find it a useful technology to ensure traceability and add financial value to their herds. Such a lead-in period will hopefully also give us the time to get the technology right.”
Five year review “worrying”
However, Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland George Lyon warned that “the compromise position of a review after five years carries with it the danger that it will lead directly to the introduction of a compulsory system whether the industry is ready for it or not”.
UK farming leaders echoed these concerns, with NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe stating it was “slightly worrying” that MEPs had asked the Commission to review the voluntary rules in five years’ time. “But we will continue to work in Brussels to make sure our cattle farmers do not suffer under this review,” he said.
He pointed out: “The letters EID strike fear into farmers.” And he said it was essential that the system be voluntary, with farmers not penalised for errors “that are beyond their control”.
The Parliament proposal will now be passed to EU agriculture ministers for consideration, before being passed back to MEPs for final approval.
“The NFU will continue to work with the decision-makers both in the Agriculture Council, the European Parliament and Defra as they work towards a final agreement,” said Sercombe.