Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-17-Speech-2-021"
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"en.20021217.1.2-021"2
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"Mr President, I wish to say at the outset that the committee is very grateful that we secured this inquiry. As we are all aware, the initial decision to hold an inquiry was not without its difficulties. It was opposed by the UK Government, which also expressed misgivings as to the duration of the inquiry. It felt that six months was sufficient. However, we would never have accomplished what we did had we not been allowed a 12-month duration. That was vital for us to undertake the task asked of us.
On the matter of the three-kilometre contiguous culling, in my own nation, Wales, up to 700 farms were culled of all their animals and only on 60 of those farms were there proven cases of the foot and mouth epidemic. I stress this because, in some of the opposing amendments, the Socialist Group implies, and I quote their justification: 'There was no evidence that animal welfare was violated in more than a handful of instances.' If animals were culled on this scale with no proven blood-tested evidence, it was a clear and blatant violation of animal welfare, and on a large scale.
I am disappointed at Mr Byrne's unwillingness to countenance or even research into a prophylactic routine vaccination in future, and this at a time when the Commission has advertised in farming publications – daily and weekly in the UK – all sorts of routine vaccinations to tackle all sorts of epidemics and diseases.
On the matter of the legality of the cull in the UK, it is quite unacceptable that, based on two court cases alone in Britain, the cull had a legal basis. In future we must have proper contingency planning. It is quite astounding that the government of the day in the UK had no tried and tested contingency plan in place.
I also have grave doubts as to whether we have had sufficient consultation with civil society and simulation exercises to ensure that, if there were an outbreak tomorrow morning, we would all know what to do and how to respond to it. The epidemic in the UK was a catalogue of errors. Regions like my own had no idea at all how to tackle the situation and no powers devolved to them to undertake their task of tackling it effectively. In the interests of communities everywhere throughout Europe, it is vital that the same mistakes are not allowed to happen again."@en1
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