Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-11-Speech-1-175"
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"en.20061211.17.1-175"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the report that I submit to the Chamber on behalf of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development welcomes the proposal by the Commission regarding the possibility of approving multi-annual programmes and updating some of the instruments that accompany Community policy on animal health. It also considers, however, that some specific measures contained in the proposals aimed at amending Council Decision 90/424/EEC fall short of what is required.
Lastly, Mr President, I wish to pass on my thanks to all those who helped draw up this report. The Commission will hopefully take on board the proposals put forward in the report, which are aimed at helping improve animal health.
We therefore wish to highlight 12 amendments aimed at achieving five key objectives, which are as follows: in view of the lack of knowledge of what has occurred with programmes for the eradication, control and monitoring of certain animal diseases in the various Member States, the first of the objectives is to call on the Commission to submit a report every four years to Parliament and the Council on the animal health situation and on the cost-effectiveness of implementing the programmes in the Member States, including an explanation of the criteria adopted.
The second is to support the dissemination of good practices and to encourage the submission of joint programmes by two or more Member States in border regions wherever this is shown to be important for the prevention, control, monitoring and eradication of contagious animal diseases, including zoonoses, in view of the different attitudes and behaviour in different Member States, even neighbouring ones, as regards the same diseases, which can affect the measures adopted.
The third is to make it compulsory for funding proposals to be submitted in the event of emergency situations, which require the sudden and unforeseeable disbursement of very large financial resources. The funding proposals should not be subject to the deadlines referred to in this decision, which should, in any event, extend the deadlines laid down by the Commission. An example of this is the foot-and-mouth outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2000. For diseases of this kind, the sooner measures are imposed and the more radical they are, the more effective they will be. For this to be possible, a minimum financial reserve needs to be set up to respond to disasters which arise suddenly, insidiously and unforeseeably.
Fourthly, we are proposing to extend the list, attached to this decision, of contagious animal diseases to which Community financial support can be granted. The Commission had proposed to cut this list. The proposal contained in this report by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development thus adds eight diseases to the current list, and proposes more aimed at also ensuring funding for their control and eradication.
I wish to highlight the vital importance of this proposal, given that in a number of countries there are eradication programmes already under way, which should not be interrupted. In Portugal, where I am most familiar with the situation, bovine leucosis is a disease for which eradication programmes have been running for around 20 years, and it is now in the final stage of definitive eradication. Very few cases of leucosis were detected last year and it is estimated that the disease can be definitively eradicated in one year’s time. Making the disease ineligible for funding could compromise all the efforts made and lead to its uncontrolled resurgence.
Another example is Newcastle disease, which is endemic in wild birds and could be transmitted to unvaccinated poultry at any time. The economic consequences of this disease could be devastating for birds. Aujeszky’s disease in pigs, which the Commission proposed to exclude, is also the subject of a planned programme for Portugal, where failure to eradicate the disease means that it is impossible to export pigs to some markets. Swine brucellosis is another disease not included in the current list, which may pose the same type of problems for trade, and is endemic in Portugal and the Mediterranean basin.
In order to simplify the legislation in force, the Commission is also proposing the repeal of Council Decision 90/638/EEC laying down Community criteria for the eradication and monitoring of certain animal diseases, replacing those criteria with fresh technical criteria set out in the annexes to the new decision currently under review, which the Commission intends subsequently to transform into criteria and standard requirements.
In this report we are proposing that Parliament issue a new opinion in the event of a change in the criteria in force."@en1
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