Farmers may see reform in EID rules
After pressure from NFUS and fellow farming unions - NFU, NFU Cymru, and the Ulster Farmers Union – a number of MEPs from across the UK have proposed amendments to the Common Agricultural Policy reform process that would introduce an element of tolerance in the EID rules.
Amendments have been put forward by Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland, George Lyon and a group of Conservative MEPs on removing the threat of penalties for farmers who have failed to comply with strict requirements to replace sheep tags lost through no fault of their own, plus relaxing the 100 per cent accuracy rule.
John Sleigh. NFU Scotland’s livestock policy manager, said: “Throughout the discussions on the implementation of sheep EID, we have consistently stressed the need for an accepted level of tolerance.
“It is impossible for Scottish sheep farmers to achieve complete accuracy at all times due to problems with faulty tags, lost tags, faulty reading equipment, climatic conditions and practical difficulties. But as the rules stand, any of these problems could result in farmers receiving cross compliance penalties through no fault of their own.”
The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee is expected to vote on the amendments in the autumn with a possible vote by all MEPs towards the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013.
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