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Lyon holds constructive meeting with Agriculture Commissioner
September 18, 2009 10:21 AM
George Lyon, Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland, has held a private meeting with EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel to clarify the rules on cross compliance inspection when electronic tagging of sheep is introduced.
The Commissioner, who is responsible for cross compliance regulations, gave an assurance that she fully understood the practical difficulties that Scottish farmers would have in complying with EID.
Mrs Fisher Boel went on to say that she was aware of the problems hill farmers in Scotland would face due to the extensive nature of our sheep farming and, most importantly, the short comings in the accuracy of EID readers.
Commenting, George Lyon said:
"I was reassured that the Commissioner understood the practical difficulties there is in implementing what is a deeply flawed system. Her pledge of flexibility and tolerance should go some way to reassure sheep farmers who are desperately worried that they may lose some single farm payment.
"While I welcome her reassurance that the Scottish Government can use SRDP funding to help support the cost of the introduction of EID, I am disappointed that there is no new money on the table.
"Nonetheless, the Scottish Government must commit to funding the implementation in full as their counterparts in other European countries appear to be."
Mr Lyon also raised the problems importers are experiencing in importing protein into the European Union because of the zero tolerance on GM contamination
"Mrs Fischer Boel is fully aware of the impact that the high cost of imported protein is having on both the Pig and Dairy Sector. She gave me an assurance that the Commission were looking closely at finding a technical solution to the problem.
"A speedy resolution to this problem is essential as the high price of soya is compounding the current crisis in the dairy sector."
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