Brussels, 22/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - In a first reading on Tuesday 20 May, the European Parliament negotiated an agreement with the Council on the proposal to simplify regulation on meat production statistics and herds.
The proposal aims to bring all member state responsibilities into a single regulation on the updating, collection and transmission of data on this subject: number of animals (twice a year for pigs and bovines, once a year for sheep and goats; slaughter (once a month on the number of heads and carcass weight and the addition of supplementary statistics on poultry, chickens, turkeys and ducks - to that already requested for pigs, bovines, ovines and caprines once a month.
The amendments in the adoption of the report by Friedrich Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf (Greens/EFA, Germany) correspond for the most part, with technical demands from the Council, particularly on the transition periods and additional margins of manoeuvre for the administrative authorities. They also seek to maintain certain committee appeals procedures for application measures and future revision of the regulation, with control exercised by the European Parliament (as part of an inter-institutional agreement and Council decision of July 2006). (L.C.)