site.btaBulgarian MEP Ivo Hristov and Romanian Colleague Ask from EU Additional EUR 70 Mln to Fight African Swine Fever

109 POLITICS - EU FINANCING - AFRICAN SWINE FEVER - BULGARIA

Bulgarian MEP Ivo Hristov and Romanian Colleague
Ask from EU Additional EUR 70 Mln
to Fight African Swine Fever


Brussels, July 26 (BTA) - MEPs Ivo Hristov (Bulgaria) and Carmen Avram (Romania), who are also members of the European Parliament's Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, have asked that an additional 70 million euro be included in next year's EU budget to fight African Swine Fever (ASF), Hristov's office reported Friday.

The MEPs made two proposals. The first one is to increase by 50 million euro the budget of the Fund for emergency measures related to animal and plant health, and the second one is to increase by 20 million euro the available financing for ensuring a higher animal health status and high level of protection of animals in the Union.

The idea is to ensure more financial resources for the Fund for emergency measures, which can be provided to the Member States and subsequently to farmers, for addressing the consequences of ASF (in this specific case).

Hristov motivated his proposal with the fact that the resources are necessary because a perspective for ending the ASF outbreak is practically missing. Morbidity is constantly increasing and the economic damages are comparable to a collapse of the whole sector, which has enjoyed substantial growth in Bulgaria in recent years.

The second proposal aims to ensure an additional 20 million euro for research and development of a vaccine against ASF. This process takes between six and eight years. The US is already working on it, although the disease is not common there. Regardless of that, the US is trading with countries where there are ASF outbreaks. According to Hristov, developing such a vaccine in Europe will reduce the likelihood of depending on a third country that is not an EU Member State, for a vaccine that will solve a pressing problem within the Union's borders.

Both proposals concern the EU budget, but the idea is to direct the additional funds to those who are most severely impacted.

According to information of the European Commission's Directorate General Health and Food Safety, a total of 3,548 ASF cases have been registered in the EU between January and mid-July of this year. Of these, 334 were registered among wild boar and 3,214 among domestic pigs.

In Bulgaria, the damages caused by ASF will increase drastically. Two industrial complexes have been affected, while three regions declared a state of emergency (Pleven, Rousse and Razgrad).

EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis told Bulgarian National Radio on Thursday that he is very disappointed by the Bulgarian authorities' actions to curb the spread of the disease. He expressed concerns that if the Bulgarian authorities did not take urgent measures, this country could lose its whole pig-breeding sector. IG/MY
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