Brussels, 13/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption (31 votes to 6, with 3 abstentions), on Tuesday 11 February, of the report by Marit Paulsen (ALDE, Sweden) on the proposed regulation on animal health, the committee on agriculture of the European Parliament made many changes to the initial proposal, to make it possible to fight animal disease effectively and allow the EU to act swiftly and responsibly in the event of an emergency. The issue of cloning was not dealt with, even though a number of MEPs wanted it to be.
The new provisions as amended by the MEPs clarify the responsibilities of farmers, traders and animal professionals, including veterinary surgeons and pet keepers: they must ensure the good health of their animals and prevent the introduction and spread of diseases. However, the amendments placed a good deal of emphasis on prevention. In order to promote the proper use of veterinary medicines, the MEPs propose that member states should pay particular attention to microbial resistance and ensure better access to professional training in this area when designing their national plans for the prevention and control of infectious animal diseases.
For instance, veterinary surgeons must provide proper explanations to farmers, trainers and pet keepers on how to use microbials responsibly. According to the text adopted, animal operators should be subject to animal-health visits by veterinary surgeon to their premises with the aim of stopping emerging diseases from spreading through the EU market.
To tackle diseases that have a major impact on public health, agricultural production or animal welfare and health, such as bluetongue, African swine fever or avian influenza, the Commission must be empowered to adopt urgent measures, the MEPs state. However, they insist that both Parliament and Council have proper scrutiny over the measures adopted and be able to reject them if necessary.
Stray dogs: more controls. Member states should set up mandatory registration schemes for stray animals, which are often responsible for transmitting animal diseases, by January 2018, the MEPs argue. They call on the Commission to present a proposal concerning electronic databases for stray dogs throughout the EU by 31 July 2019.
Pests: tighter rules on plant imports
The committee on agriculture of the EP also adopted (24 votes to 11 votes, with 2 abstentions) the report by Hynek Fajmon (ECR, Czech Republic) on protection measures against organisms which are harmful to plants (report on plant health). The agriculture committee is in favour of a complete overhaul of the current approach towards imports of plants and plant products from third countries. The aim is to tighten up the preventative measures. Contrary to the Commission's proposal to keep the blacklist of plants and plant products from certain countries or regions (an approach also favoured by rapporteur Hynek Fajmon), the parliamentary committee voted to establish a positive list. This will take the form of a list of countries and products that do not pose an unacceptable danger to EU agriculture. Products from these third countries could then be imported into the EU.
Countries wishing to export plants to the EU should submit a request to the Commission, which would then decide whether or not to accept it, on the basis of various checks, including on-the-spot audits by the EU, according to the amendments voted through by the agriculture committee.
The two texts will be examined by the European Parliament at the plenary session of March or April (to be confirmed). The texts are part of the animal health and plant health package, which also includes the plank on seeds, which was thrown out on Tuesday 11 February by the committee on agriculture of the EP (see EUROPE 11016). (LC/transl.fl)