EU sheep tag legislation 'unworkable' say Scottish farmers

Scottish farmers have been at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg supporting German farmers in their case challenging the rules that require the electronic tagging of sheep.

MEPs in Brussels voted on many amendments to the new CAP from 2014 to 2020 but one reform that many of sheep farmers were hoping for was removing the link between electronic identification and cross compliance.

The threat of losing a percentage of their Single Farm Payment is a constant worry for many farmers when dealing with technology that they cannot guarantee will be 100% accurate.

Sheep farmers in particular were angered over the rules as some were penalised for errors out of their control such as sheep losing tags or other technical glitches.

NFU Scotland Vice President Rob Livesey and the Union's Livestock Policy Manager John Sleigh accompanied the German Federation of Sheep Farmers to their hearing at the ECJ yesterday (Thursday, 7 March). A ruling is expected on May 29th.

The German sheep farmers were granted the opportunity to mount a legal challenge at a European level after a court in Germany decided in 2012 that they had a strong enough case to take their fight to the ECJ.

Scottish and German sheep farmers are united in their opposition to impractical European sheep identification rules which require electronic tagging of individual animals and over-bureaucratic recording and reporting of tagging and stock movements.

The removal of this threat 'would not only be good for them but could also potentially encourage other farms to reintroduce sheep to their enterprises,' the National Sheep Association said.

The association said farmers were worried of the risk of having sheep.

"We should not underestimate the work that has gone on to get us to this position, such as providing evidence of the level of practical accuracy of EID technology and convincing key influencers that cross compliance penalties based on EID failures is unfair and risks damaging the success of the sheep industry" said Phil Stocker, NSA Chief Executive.

"This is a very welcome step forward but we need to keep up our work and we will not get to the finish line until EID is not associated with cross compliance penalties."

Speaking from Luxembourg, Livesey said: "NFU Scotland continues to stand together with sheep farmers across Europe against the unworkable sheep EID legislation and we must take every opportunity to try and make sheep farmers' lives easier.

"The Stuttgart court in 2012 considered that the German shepherds' case regarding requirements for individual and electronic identification of sheep and flock record-keeping was difficult for the EU to justify. That case has now reached its next stage at the European Court of Justice.

"It is such an important issue for Scotland that we took the opportunity to support it in person.

"Scotland continues to work with allies in other Member States to drive for a fundamental review of the sheep tagging regulation EC 21/2004. We hope that this action, undertaken by the German shepherds is successful and forces the European Commission to recognise and react to the difficulties that many farmers across Europe are having in complying with the sheep EID legislation.

"We are also keeping up the pressure on the European Commission to ensure that we make progress with sheep EID during the current CAP Reform process which presents an opportunity to ensure that any cross-compliance rules around electronic ID are significantly tempered to recognise the impractical nature of the legislation.”