Compulsory EID of sheep date set

Farmers Guardian reported last week that the move was a possibility but, due to pressure from some member states, the date has now been set.

Peter King, NFU chief livestock adviser, said the UK was still pushing hard for a ‘cost-benefit analysis’ or ‘impact assessment’, as previously proposed by the EU, but EID in some form was now unavoidable. Therefore Defra, the NFU and the National Sheep Association would continue to lobby for compromises and a sensible approach

“The door is almost shut on EID but we do still have a small piece of wood wedging it open,” he said.

The problem was, he said, other countries were not lobbying as hard as the UK. Spain and Italy were actually very keen on compulsory EID, as they had government-funded projects already operating, and they had in fact asked for a start date of January 1, 2008 (the date originally set by the EU several years ago).

In addition, countries with small flocks (less than 600,000 sheep and goats) that would be exempt from the regulations were apathetic.

And the Republic of Ireland, which has a derogation for double tagging and (arguably) could obtain one for EID, was also not voicing objections.

Mr King said the NFU would continue to demand the cost-benefit analysis and ask for EID to be voluntary.

The NFU would also fight for leniency – for example, insisting that recording of individual movements not be made compulsory on the same day as EID, allowing time for the infrastructure to be put in place and removing the need for retrospective tagging.

He still believed there was no justification for EID, as the risk of BSE in sheep (the original driver) had been disproved, and the EU’s insistence in pushing forward was yet another example of ‘flawed logic’. It did not help that Europe’s understanding of sheep identification was ‘appalling’.

“It started the train running, probably with the right intentions, but no one is prepared to stop it,” he said.

If EID was to be made compulsory it had to be market led with a clear indication that consumers wanted that level of traceability and were willing to pay for it.

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