92001E0090

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0090/01

by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE) to the Commission

(29 January 2001)

Subject: Cofinancing of anti-BSE measures

The decisions adopted by the EU Council of Ministers under the plan to eradicate BSE and fight its spread to humans are being applied by the fifteen Member States with varying degrees of effectiveness. Some of these measures, such as the transportation of carcasses and the destruction of at-risk material, are leading in a number of Spanish regions, given the repercussions of the costs on stockbreeders, to the further impoverishment of an already disadvantaged sector: farming is essentially based on the family model, while the national and regional governments appear unable to meet the costs of implementing the Union's measures.

Does the Commission intend to provide extraordinary funding with a view to the cofinancing of measures such as incineration, transportation, testing (analysis and acquisition) and construction or equipment of reference laboratories and incinerators, so as to ensure that these costs do not have direct repercussions as is already happening in some cases on the stockbreeders themselves and that the measures are properly implemented and succeed in restoring a climate of confidence among European consumers?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(21 March 2001)

The Commission is already cofinancing a significant percentage of the cost of this crisis, for example via a specific purchase scheme introduced by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2777/2000 of 18 December 2000 adopting exceptional support measures for the beef market(1), by funding the purchase of rapid diagnostic tests for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and by applying the public intervention regime to the common organisation of the market in beef and veal.

The financial impact of this series of measures is currently estimated at almost 1 billion.

As part of an initial supplementary and amending budget for 2001, the Commission has asked the budgetary authority to release the sums placed in reserve ( 60 million) for the funding of further testing.

Current budgetary and legal circumstances do not allow the Commission to become involved in funding new measures such as incineration or the transportation of carcasses.

(1) OJ L 321, 19.12.2000.