Plea for cross-compliance fairness
10 May 2007
During the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee's hearing in Brussels on cross-compliance, Jim Allister MEP again attacked the Commission's intention to retain no notice inspections in respect of controls pertaining to feed & food law, animal health and animal welfare & identification.
Drawing a parallel with tax or vat inspections Mr Allister said even in those draconian fields the citizen was entitled to notice, but farmers were being assumed to be up to no good and denied rights available in every other walk of life.
Since farmers already have to record everything in respect of animals so as to provide total traceability, there was no justification on animal health or other grounds for denying notice of upcoming inspections, argued the Ulster MEP. Farmers' representatives at the hearing, including Peter Kendall President of the NFU, agreed.
The European Commission made a commitment to fair, flexible and proportionate cross-compliance measures, but by clinging to no notice inspections in several key areas it was not delivering on its promise, asserted Mr Allister. "Cross-compliance is understandable but it must be proportionate, equal and implemented in the same way across Europe", argued Mr Allister.
