Brussels, 21/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has just earmarked nearly €3.3 million to support 17 member states in their monitoring of bee colonies. This new aid is designed to allow them to carry out studies to “gather further important information” to explain the worrying decline in European hives, the Commission stated in a press release on Wednesday 16 May.
“The Commission has closely been following and coordinating the EU approach for the surveillance of honeybee colony losses in order to gather reliable and comparable data. The aim is to close the knowledge gap and gain a better understanding of the extent of the problem as well as the reasons for the honeybee colony losses”, the press release explains.
17 projects presented by the member states selected. The studies will be co-financed by the Commission to a level of 70% of admissible costs during the period from 1 April 2012 to 30 June 2013 for the following member states: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The Commission points out that the actions already undertaken and underway for the surveillance of bees in the EU include the appointment of an EU reference laboratory for their health, the training of member states' agents on bee health in the framework of the BTSF programme (“Better Training for Safer Food”), several research projects and a financial contribution to national bee programmes. The Commission notes that the increase in bee mortality has been observed worldwide.
In 2009, the Commission points out, EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) project “Bee Mortality and Bee Surveillance in Europe” concluded that the surveillance systems in the EU are, in general, weak and that there is a “lack of data at member states level” and a “lack of comparable data at EU level”. In order to improve the availability of data on bee mortality, the Commission felt it was appropriate to aid and support surveillance studies carried out by the member states. (LC/transl.fl)