NFU PRESIDENT TO BRIEF FISCHLER ON FOOT AND MOUTH
SITUATION
NFU President Ben Gill will tomorrow provide a
full account of the desperate situation of British farmers as the foot and
mouth nightmare unfolds to farming representatives from across Europe in
Brussels.
He will also take questions at the EU's headquarters at a meeting of the
European Commission's Advisory Committee on the Common Agricultural Policy
chaired by Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler.
Before the meeting, Mr Gill said he would also be calling on the Committee to
reject the seven-point package of measures proposed by the Commission to reduce
beef production because of BSE in mainland Europe.
The proposal failed to win support from member states when it was put before
the Commission's Council of Ministers on Monday.
Ben Gill will be representing the NFU and farmers from across Europe in his
position as vice president of COPA*.
He said: "The Commission proposal fails to address the key issue of
restoring consumer confidence in the market.
"This short-sighted approach will be costly to both the Commission and to
farmers and the beef industry in Europe. A new way has to be found."
The NFU has campaigned against the proposals since they were unveiled. It says
it is vitally important that the Commission proposals ensure BSE free
non-tested animals over 30 months of age are removed from the food chain in
Europe, as in Britain, and that EU-wide SRM controls are correctly enforced in
all member states.
Mr Gill said: "In their current form the proposals will devastate
Britain's beef industry and its mammoth efforts to re-build itself following
the BSE crisis.
"If these proposals are introduced, particularly at a time when the beef
industry is reeling from the current outbreak of foot and mouth, I fear the
Commission will be directly responsible for driving even more producers to the
wall."
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