News / Government doing all it can on EID
THE SCOTTISH government yesterday (Tuesday) defended itself from criticism by Shetland MSP Tavish Scott about the failure to obtain a derogation from electronic identification (EID) of sheep on the isles.
On Monday Mr Scott called on rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead to jump on a plane and fly to Brussels to do battle with the European Commission over the proposals, which he believes could ring the death knell for sheep faring in Shetland.
However the government pointed out that the EU regulations were agreed by the previous administration, in which Mr Scott was transport minister, and said they were doing all they could to make the process as painless as possible.
A spokesman said: “We fully understand that the implementation of the EU regulations on electronic sheep tagging – agreed by the previous administration – will be challenging for Shetland’s farmers.
“We remain in close contact with the local agricultural community and are working with it to make implementation as simple as possible.
“We have long held the view that animals should not be required to be identified until they leave their holding of birth, a position taken as a result of previous representations from Shetland.
“That’s why the rural affairs secretary directly raised this issue with Commissioner Vassiliou, though unfortunately there was not enough support from other member
states.
“Any derogation for Shetland has to come from the European Commission, which has confirmed again recently that it cannot grant derogations under the current rules.
“Should the new agriculture commissioner agree to a review of the sheep tagging regulations, we will again seek to raise this issue and seek practical and pragmatic solutions.
“In the meantime, we have recently announced a package of measures to help the entire Scottish sheep industry with the implementation of this challenging legislation. This will keep paperwork to a minimum, maintain traditional market patterns and allow markets and abattoirs to act as critical control points which could lead to up to £4 million savings across the industry.”
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