Brussels, 07/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - Increasing funds for bee-keeping as part of the new CAP (common agriculture policy) post-2013, stepping up aid to coordinated research, encouraging the sharing of information and providing adequate training to bee-keepers, farmers and veterinary surgeons are some of the measures recommended by the committee on agriculture of the European Parliament. The report by Csaba Sandor Tabajdi (S&D, Hungary) on the health of bees and challenges to the bee-keeping sector was approved by the committee on Thursday 6 October (32 votes in favour, 1 against and 3 abstentions). The plenary vote is scheduled to take place at the November plenary session (14-17 November 2011).
Early next year, the European Commission is to present legislation on animal health to replace the current basic veterinary legislation. There is an urgent need to act. The precise reasons for the recent increase in bee mortality are still not clear. Increasing bee mortality could have catastrophic effects on food production and the environmental stability of the EU, the committee on agriculture warns. 84% of plant species and 76% of the food production of the EU depends on pollination by bees. The MEPs call on the Commission and the member states to act in concert and invest more in research and the funding of bee programmes beyond 2013. Rapporteur Csaba Sandor Tabajdi said: “there is a strong need for community funding for the continuous research and development of new bee-health veterinary products”. He went on to say that “pollination, a public good benefiting the entire EU agriculture, can only be preserved by joint EU action”. The direct and indirect income of more than 600,000 European citizens depends on the bee-keeping sector.
A major obstacle in the fight against increasing bee mortality is the lack of reliable data. In order to obtain more specific information on the current health problems of bees and to set in place improved comparisons, the MEPs are calling for the creation of national monitoring systems and standardised norms at EU level to allow data to be gathered. Research in the field of disease prevention and control should also be harmonised and its results shared between member states, laboratories, bee-keepers, farmers and the whole of the sector, in order to avoid any duplication of effort and to increase its efficiency, the committee on agriculture stresses. The MEPs call on the European Commission and the member states to increase funds earmarked for research at European level and to support diagnostics laboratories and trials on the ground.
The national and European authorities should consult bee-keepers when creating programmes in the bee-keeping sector and when drafting the corresponding legislation, in order to guarantee the effectiveness of these programmes and their timely implementation, the MEPs state.
Improving access to new drugs. It is vital to step up the availability of effective veterinary treatments to treat diseases such as those caused by the Varroa mite, the MEPs believe. Furthermore, they call for more flexible rules for the authorisation and availability of veterinary products of bees, but rule out any excessive use of antibiotics, given their effect on the quality of bee products and growing resistance to antibiotics. The MEPs argue that the pharmaceutical industry should be encouraged to develop new drugs for bees and to invest more in tests on the ground in the member states.
The MEPs also welcomed the Commission's proposal to review the legislation on animal health and called for more funds for the European veterinary policy, in order to fight bee diseases such as varroasis more effectively.
Stepping up the fight against disease. Another factor affecting the health of bees is the presence of toxic agents in the environment, such as pesticides. The MEPs support special training programmes destined for farmers, based on the effects of these agents and on the use of bee-friendly phyto-pharmaceutical products, and similar products for bee-keepers and veterinary surgeons in terms of disease prevention and control. They also called on the Commission to carry out objective research into the potential negative repercussions of genetically modified crops on bee health.
Controls on imports. Furthermore, the Commission was invited to keep a close eye on the animal health situation in third countries, to apply stricter criteria in terms of animal health and to set in place an adequate controls system for imported products, in order to avoid the introduction of exotic bee diseases. (LC/transl.fl)