AEMB Board meeting – 28th November 2011 Ennis, Ireland

EUROPEAN LIVESTOCK AND MEAT TRADEING UNION

UECBV

Proposal amending Regulation (EC) 1760/2000

30 August 2011: The European Commission transmitted to the Council and the European Parliament a Commission proposal for a Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 as regards electronic identification of bovine animals and deleting the provisions on voluntary beef labelling. • legal framework for the introduction, on a voluntary basis, of

an EID for bovine animals (the Commission proposal allows MS to introduce a mandatory regime at national level)

• repeals the current provisions on voluntary beef labelling with the main objective is to reduce unnecessary administrative burden.

EID – BOVINE

State of play:• 20-21st October 2011: the Polish Presidency convened

a first working group on this issue.• 29 November 2011: Working Party of Veterinary

Experts (Animal Health) will discuss the Commission proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000.

EID – BOVINE

Stakeholder Working Group – Technical standards • 26 October 2011: DG SANCO organized a working

group with stakeholders to exchange views and experience on technical standards for EID.

• The meeting goal was to identify best technical standards to be defined for bovine EID.

• The UECBV was represented by Andrew Wright.

Next steps:- Minutes will be distributed to SCOFCAH's members- Next WG will take place with EU MS representatives

EID – BOVINE

Background

• Council Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 foresees the gradual introduction of individual traceability based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).

• Following the Report from the Commission from 2007, EID for goats and sheep became compulsory.

The following steps have been set: Electronic tagging for all animals born after 31st December 2009

(Member States with small populations of sheep and goats may make EID optional for animals not involved in intra-Community trade);

Recording of individual animal codes during movements (individual tracking);

• From 1st January 2011 for all animals born after 31st December 2009; • From 1st January 2012 for all animals.

EID- Sheep and Goats

Sheep and Goats - State of Implementation

UECBV table on EID for sheep and goats:

Updated figures regarding the percentage of animals in the different MS that are already equipped with electronic tagging,

The next steps as regards the implementation of EID of sheep in the different MS

The reading accuracy of the EID in sheep and goats:- Percentage of reading accuracy; - What MS intend to do in order to achieve 100% accuracy.- If the MS intend to apply a cross compliance breach fine if less

than 100% reading accuracy is achieved

EID- Sheep and Goats

European Parliament:

MEPs met with Commissioner Dalli in November to discuss the latest position on the introduction of the EID of sheep and asked :

- Whether a flexibility agreement concerning EID of sheep, has been reached between the Scottish Government and the Commission, exempting Scottish producers from the obligation to obtain 100% accuracy in their on-farm sheep records?

- If such a flexibility agreement has been reached, to what accuracy requirements shall Scottish producers be subject in their on-farm sheep records without penalties being incurred?

The MEPs stressed that the farmers need clarity on how much flexibility they have on read rates and on farm records in order to avoid fines

 The Commissioner stated the he was not opposed to a review of the implementation of the rules and probably would not

oppose extending the implementation date.

EID- Sheep and Goats

Sheep and Goats – UK Proposal

• SCoFCAH meeting 8th November: the UK underlined the difficulties with reporting individual movements of non EID sheep and goats:

- 31 December 2011, individual animal numbers of sheep and goats born before 31/12/09 to be recorded on the movement document, unless the animals are moving to a slaughterhouse directly or via a channeling procedure.

- There is no requirement for these animals to be electronically identified or to be recorded individually in the holding register.

- It is not practical or economical to attempt to record manually the individual numbers of large volumes of animals when they move

EID- Sheep and Goats

What are the options:1. Record individual animal numbers on movement

documents manually

2. Electronically identifying animals born before 31 December 2009 and use EID to facilitate individual recording

3. Defer the individual recording requirement until the majority of ‘historic’ animals have been culled

“We have been unable to persuade industry in UK that either of these options (1&2) are justifiable, particularly in the current economic

climate”

EID- Sheep and Goats

UK Proposal: Deferring the date from which individual recording begins until 31 December 2016.EX: - in Great Britain, at Dec 2010 there were 13 million older breeding sheep that are not required to be electronically identified.- There will be a year on year decrease of non EID animals until 2016 when the majority of the non EID breeding animals will have been culled.

EID- Sheep and Goats

www.uecbv.eu

Thank you very much for your attention!