United Kingdom-Re-Thinking EID Ear tags for sheep.

D ISASTROUS plans to introduce compulsory electronic identification and the individual recording of sheep will be re-examined by European farm ministers, following sustained pressure by British and Irish industry bodies.

The whole issue will now be revisited by the ministers when they meet later this month in Brussels. Ministerial reconsideration of the issue is the only viable vehicle for over-turning the new rules, according to the organisations pledged to fight EID introduction.

A paper by the Hungarian government has been officially tabled for the Council of Agricultural Ministers meeting in Brussels on March 23 and 24. It calls for the abandonment of current mandatory demands to electronically record the individual identities of sheep every time they move.

After meetings attended by the NFU, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland and the Irish Farmers’ Association in Brussels this week, it is believed that the German government will join the UK and Irish governments in support of this at the Council of Ministers meeting. Dialogue is continuing at home and across Europe to secure as much support as possible to overturn the regulation.

In a joint statement, the four unions said: "This is a critical breakthrough. Commission officials have been implementing the regulation as it was previously agreed by Ministers, so the only way to avoid these unworkable and unnecessary regulations is to get EU Ministers to revisit the regulations.

"All hopes are now on the Council of Ministers’ meeting. The move from the Hungarian government offers the opportunity for our own governments to turn their words of support for us into meaningful and robust action.

"The unions will be in Brussels for the Agriculture Council meeting, but there is a huge amount of work required in the run-up, both by our own governments and ourselves, to secure as much political support across the rest of Europe as we can.

"This breakthrough has been the result of tireless work on this issue and discussion with our European counterparts. However, over the next few days this work will enter its most important phase. Ministers must realise that failing to overturn these proposals is not an option."

The National Sheep Association said it could not understand why other Member States had not opposed the EID introduction earlier, rather than leaving it to the 11th hour. They were only just starting to realise that the impact on their industries could be substantial and that the proposed regulations actually did very little in respect of their stated purpose of improving sheep traceability for disease control.

The NSA believes that a key factor in this shift of position is a moving of focus onto the real problem – the demand to record individual identities of sheep as they move, irrespective of the use of EID.

The need to use EID to record individual sheep identities is dependent on flock size and the majority of Member States do not have flocks big enough to compel its use. This does not exempt them from the regulations and they will have to record these individual movements manually. Gaining support from these minority sheep-keeping countries, as well as the larger producing Member States, will be vital if this late intervention is to work.

NSA chief executive and Devon farmer Peter Morris said: "This is welcome news, but it is very important not to create a false sense of victory at this very early stage. Just because the issue is possibly being brought back to the table does not mean to say that enough Member States will support it to have the regulation stopped in its tracks. Indeed it is not crystal clear what proposals the Hungarians are actually bringing to the table.

"We have a chink of light, but sheep farmers know from seeing the recent Defra adverts that plans for implementation of these new rules are already well advanced.

"Now is the time to keep the pressure on, keep highlighting the inappropriateness of the regulations and the damage they will cause – and try to secure more support.

"We know the Germans are coming round and the Irish are starting to become vocal so the UK is no longer on its own. But we definitely need more support than we currently have if change is to come."

Mr Morris said there was a clear industry expectation for Defra Secretary Hilary Benn to throw all his weight behind stopping these regulations. The spotlight was back on our own politicians to gain support from their counterparts.