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Dialogue over sheep regulations will aim to minimise impact

24 Mar 2010

The NFU will continue working closely with Defra to find ways to minimise the impact on English and Welsh sheep farmers of the introduction of individual movement recording of sheep after the Commissioner responsible said there would be scope for some flexibility over its implementation.

Following lobbying by the NFU, the issue was tabled by the Hungarians for discussion at yesterday’s (Monday) meeting of the Council of Agricultural Ministers in Brussels and eight other countries came out in support of the UK stance. However, Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou confirmed the regulation will come into force on December 31 2009.

NFU livestock board chairman Alistair Mackintosh, who was in Brussels for the meeting along with Defra Farming and the Environment Minister Jane Kennedy, said dialogue would continue in order to explore ways of reducing the implications of this regulation on sheep farmers.

He said: “We remain fundamentally opposed to the individual movement recording of sheep but the Commission is still determined to start to implement this regulation from the end of this year. However, following these discussions we believe the door is now open for further talks and we will work closely with Jane Kennedy to see what we can get from this. We’re grateful for Jane Kennedy’s support on this issue. She supported the sheep sector and defended our position robustly at the Council meeting.

“While the Commission has made it very clear that the measures will come in, Commissioner Vassiliou clearly indicated there will be some flexibility regarding implementation and we are now working to ascertain how far this will go.

“Our opposition to this regulation will continue. This is a bad regulation that is not fit for purpose and we owe it to our membership to keep pursuing this.”