On Wednesday 18 March, Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, told the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture that he was open to the idea of moving the EU’s current biosecurity strategy (based on movement restrictions, regionalisation and the culling of animals infected with category A diseases) “towards another approach, in particular vaccination”.
Such a change would constitute a major reform and could only be made under certain conditions, he said, in response to Benoît Cassart (Renew Europe, Belgian).
“We will need first of all a solid scientific opinion that can confirm that vaccination can prevent these diseases (...) then we can still continue to run the single market properly and (...) we are not losing our trade positions”, Olivér Várhelyi stressed. He acknowledged that the issue was complex, but that the increasing number of animal disease outbreaks, their economic cost to farmers and their impact on animal welfare now required in-depth consideration.
He also specified that this decision cannot be taken unilaterally by the European Commission. It should be the subject of a wider debate, including at international level.
In this respect, the issue should be raised at the next General Assembly of the World Organisation for Animal Health, because if any changes are to be made, it would be preferable for them to be coordinated with the rest of the world, which is also affected by these diseases.
Mr Várhelyi said that there was no room for manoeuvre with regard to current outbreaks: the existing rules must continue to apply. For the future, however, he felt that a thorough reflection was now essential. In his view, without changes to the rules, it is difficult to imagine how to “make sure that Europe will continue to be self-sufficient on food (...) how the farmers otherwise will be able to put the food on the table that we all need”. This will be a major debate, and the Commissioner wishes to launch it this year. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)