EU to re-examine EID chaos
EUROPE’S health and consumer policy commissioner John Dalli is to visit the UK to see the problems being created by the new electronic sheep identification (EID) rules.
Scottish crofters and farmers are being hardest hit by the new regime which demands that every one of the country’s 7 million sheep, the largest flock in Europe, is counted individually every time they move from field to market to abattoir.
The scheme introduced at the end of last year has caused an outcry throughout the land and led northern isles MP Alistair Carmichael to table a Parliamentary motion urging the government to take urgent action to stop the measures from being introduced.
When that failed Shetland MSP Tavish Scott tried and failed to gain a derogation for the islands saying EID would be the “death knell” of local sheep farming.
This week Mr Dalli has agreed to a request from UK food and farming minister Jim Paice to visit Scotland to see for himself the problems the new system is creating.
Mr Carmichael welcomed the visit, saying that much of the credit for it could be laid at the door of LibDem Scottish secretary Michael Moore,
He added that the problem could have been averted if action had been taken earlier by ministers in Edinburgh, Westminster and Brussels.
“I have always maintained that the new EID rules placed an unnecessary financial burden on our sheep farmers without delivering the improvement in traceability that was required.
“Bureaucrats in Brussels disregarded the concerns of local farmers before the law was changed. I am pleased that the Mr Dalli will now have the opportunity to see the problems that these regulations have caused in Scotland for himself.
“It should be remembered that we have found ourselves in this position because ministers in Edinburgh and Brussels took their eye off the ball and by the time they woke up to the implications of what was happening it was too late.
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“I would hope that lessons about proper engagement with the EU commission will be learnt as a result of this, and that if we can repair the damage caused by this ill-considered scheme then DEFRA and Scottish government ministers will be more careful in future.’
The EID regulations were driven through by the EU’s health and consumer policy directorate whose previous commissioner Androulla Vassiliou refused similar invitations.
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