Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-04-07-Speech-4-050-000"
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"en.20110407.4.4-050-000"2
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"Mr President, the Commission is grateful to Parliament for its support for the proposal to further facilitate vaccination against bluetongue and for its recommendation in relation to this very important issue. In particular, I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mr Wojciechowski, for his commitment to this cause.
Bluetongue has been the cause of a great deal of concern to all farmers in the European Union. Until the 1990s, bluetongue was considered exotic to the EU, with outbreaks only occurring sporadically in southern Europe. However, recent years have brought several epidemic waves of the disease, affecting many Member States, including in central and northern Europe, causing significant losses to livestock production and disruption of the trade in live animals.
The past few years have seen a significant improvement in the bluetongue situation across the EU, thanks in no small measure to massive vaccination campaigns largely cofinanced by the European Union. The EU cofinanced EUR 150 million in 2008, and allocated EUR 120 million in 2009 and EUR 100 million for the following years. Under current rules, vaccination is only allowed in areas that are subject to certain restrictions because of the presence of bluetongue disease. The proposed amendments to the directive introduce the possibility of using inactivated vaccines everywhere in the European Union. The amendment would allow a wider use of preventive vaccinations against bluetongue and this will ensure better control of the disease and lessen the burden it causes to the agricultural sector.
Parliament’s report is most timely and important for the animal health situation in the European Union. The report rightly recognises the need for urgency in order to give Member States sufficient time to vaccinate animals before the next bluetongue season starts. We must not lose sight of the fact that, although the bluetongue situation has improved greatly in recent years, the disease has not been eradicated. The EU remains at risk for new epidemic waves of bluetongue in the future and it is important that Member States have the opportunity to protect animals against the virus when they are at risk. Member States should be able to optimise their vaccination programmes with the aim of reducing the impact of future bluetongue outbreaks in the European Union. Indeed, a number of Member States have already indicated that they wish to implement this measure at the earliest opportunity.
The rapporteur refers to the really very difficult issue of the correlation tables, which are very important for tracking the correct, appropriate transposition of EU legislation into national legal systems. This is a longstanding issue and we have had many debates in this House on how to control and monitor the proper transposition of EU law into national legal systems. We can see that the correlation tables are the best tool for doing this, monitoring it and assuring appropriate transposition of EU law.
At the same time, we are very aware that, especially with such urgent issues as the one we are discussing today, we need to work very hard to find a solution between Parliament and the Council in order to avoid unnecessary blockages. I hope that the Council will demonstrate sufficient flexibility so that this legislation can be adopted on time before the start of the season in which bluetongue can break out."@en1
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