United front against EID

POLITICIANS and farmers from the main sheep-producing countries of Europe presented a united front in the battle against Electronic Identification (EID) at a landmark conference in France.

Around 500 farmers attended the conference in Limoges, which was preceded by a meeting of Ministers from the UK, Ireland, France, Spain and Romania.

It was called by French Farm Minister Michael Barnier in response to declining production and profitability in the EU sheep sector.

Discussion was based on a report into the future of the sheep industry by Irish MEP Liam Aylward, which called for urgent action to safeguard its future, particularly in the hills.

Among the key points raised were:

• An overwhelming consensus that plans to introduce EID in 2010 would be hugely damaging to the sheep industry and that changes to the regulation were needed to ease the burden.

• The need for an injection of Government funding into the sheep industry to arrest the decline.

• The need for improvements in the way sheepmeat was marketed, including the development of new product lines and better labelling, to help address declining consumption.

The biggest area of consensus was on EID, with most farming representatives and some of the politicians insisting it should be made voluntary, rather than compulsory from 2010.

Representing the UK, Food and Farming Minister Jeff Rooker told Farmers Guardian afterwards: “There was a complete slamming of EID – almost all speakers were against it. I made the point that from our individual trials, EID is not cost-effective and there are better ways of achieving disease control. We want a review of the regulation so it imposes fewer burdens,” he said.

Lord Rooker said it was probably too late to scrap the regulation altogether, although he ‘wouldn’t oppose’ this, but he believed there was real scope to simplify it and take advantage of derogations to limit the damage.

“We are trying to work within it but this was a real one-off opportunity to show the Commission the strength of feeling about EID. I put forward as jaundiced a view of it as I could get away with.”

There was less consensus on the issue of new support for vulnerable sheep farmers. The Commission made it clear there was little prospect of new money, which meant any extra funding would probably have to come from members’ existing CAP budgets.

There was also a dispute over whether extra funding should be in the form of direct aid or from rural development funds to recognise the environmental benefits of sheep production, particularly in the uplands.

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