Compensation for SRM costs?
21 June 2000
Compensation for SRM costs?
By FWi staff
BRITISH farmers could be in line for compensation if the EU contributes towards the introduction of a pan-European ban on specified risk materials (SRMs), it is claimed.
On Monday (19 June) a majority of agriculture ministers agreed to a European Commission proposal to harmonise SRM controls to try to eradicate BSE.
High-risk BSE countries – Portugal and the UK – will have to remove a long list of SRMs, but the 13 other member states will now have to exclude brains, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and ileum of cattle, sheep and goats.
It is widely thought that individual companies will pay to implement these controls in other member states.
But Meat and Livestock Commission head of planning Martin Grantley-Smith did not rule out the possibility of the EU contributing towards costs.
If this happens, Britain, which already has stringent SRM controls, could receive EU compensation, he claimed.
“If the European Commission would be prepared to part-fund it, then we would be very pleased and would assume British farmers would get some of that benefit, Mr Grantley-Smith told the BBC Radio 4 Farming Today programme.
He said the MLC would try to get any payment backdated.
Mr Grantley-Smith added that harmonised EU regulations might mean existing UK legislation on SRM in sheep could be relaxed to bring it into line.
“In a case like ours where we actually go further than the rest of Europe, there may be a possibility we would be reined back so we are in harmony with the rest of Europe.
“If that is the case then there would be a slight modification to our existing legislation which could lead to some savings.”
Mr Grantley-Smith estimated that these savings could be in the region of 1 million.
Meanwhile, the National Farmers Union of Scotland president Jim Walker has called on the Edinburgh Parliament and Westminster to do more to help beef exports.
He said that although the EU beef ban had been lifted last year, exports had not materialised and stood at about 10t a week.
In 1995, just before the ban was introduced, beef exports were worth 120m a year to Scotland.
“It simply hasnt worked,” Mr Walker told Farming Today>
“There was a glorious political shout when the ban was lifted, but in practice its made no difference the farming community in Scotland whatsoever.”
Mr Walker said excessive red tape surrounding the date-based export scheme and the strength of Sterling were to blame.
He called on the government to come up with a coherent strategy to resolve the whole problem of the BSE crisis.
The NFUS will raise its concerns at a major conference on the future of farming in Scotland on Wednesday (21 June) attended by Scottish rural affairs minister Ross Finnie.