Brussels, 25/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - During Monday's Agriculture-Fisheries Council in Luxembourg, France, supported by Italy and Hungary, stressed the need to take into account the economic damage done to European poultry producers since the appearance of avian flu in Europe. The delegations called for every possible measure to be used for market management, including export refunds as authorised under the provisions of the common market organisation (CMO) for poultry meat. Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel stressed that export refunds represent the only market management instrument available and specified that, if the avian flu virus were to be found massively present in the EU, Article 14 of the 1975 regulation on the CMO for poultry meat provides for the possibility of co-financing, though the EU budget, of the costs incurred by producers for eradicating the epizootic (culling, disinfection, inspections, etc.). In addition, the regulation authorises the payment of financial compensation to poultry farmers who can no longer find outlets for their products on the market.
Furthermore, as announced, the European Commission decided on 24 October to ban imports of live birds and certain poultry products from Croatia. This decision, which took effect immediately, was taken in response to a case of H5 avian influenza virus found in wild swans in Croatia. Croatian authorities had already banned exports of poultry and poultry products to the EU (EUROPE 9055).