European Union inspectors have raised doubts over the readiness of Poland to comply with the forthcoming ban on the use of conventional laying cages.
Doubts have been raised about Polish preparations in a report for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs (DG SANCO).
The report was prepared following an audit carried out in Poland by two inspectors from the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO), who have reported that preparations are ’insufficient’ to meet the EU’s conventional cage ban deadline at the beginning of 2012.
The report will add weight to the view of many in the UK egg industry that a number of EU states will not be ready for the cage ban. Mark Williams, chief executive of the British Egg Industry Council, has been warning for some time that a large part of the EU egg laying flock will fail to meet the 2012 deadline.
He said at the BFREPA conference in December that half of the hens currently in conventional cages in Europe would not be converted by 2012. He said that, in theory, 31 per cent of the EU’s hens would become illegal on January 1 2012. In August Mark told the Ranger that revised estimates put the number of non-compliant hens at 29 per cent of EU production.
Earlier this year Poland formally asked the EU to put back the deadline for five years until January 2017. They argued that imposing the ban in 2012 would lead to a shortage of eggs in the EU and result in lower standard and lower welfare eggs being imported from outside the union.
Agriculture ministers rejected the request at a meeting of the EU’s Agriculture Council on February 22, but the EU inspectors’ report now questions whether Poland will be ready when the ban comes into force.
In their report conclusion, they write, "there is insufficient planning to ensure that the deadline of 31.12.2011 is met for the ban on unenriched cages."
The inspectors’ audit was carried out between February 23 and March 4 this year. Its aim was to evaluate the implementation of national measures aimed at the control of animal welfare on farms and during transport. The report says, "Controls have been strengthened on certain issues through verification of controls by regional level, and the issue of animal welfare during transport through supervised loadings and use of the national contact point.
Most recommendations have been generally taken into account by the CCA (central competent authority); however, not all issues have been satisfactorily dealt with and major problems persist in relation to enforcement actions, in particular concerning laying hen
farms."
The inspectors then highlight that there has been insufficient planning for the introduction of the conventional cage ban.
The inspectors make a number of recommendations to the Polish authorities to rectify the shortcomings outlined in their report.
The EU has continued to insist that the ban will go ahead as planned on January 1 2012, but one European politician has since indicated that the EU could allow derogations for member states that fail to meet the deadline for the ban.
The politician who made the suggestion was Sabine Laruelle, the Belgian Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises, the Self-employed, Agriculture and Science Policy. She made her remarks at a meeting of the EU Agriculture Committee.
She said that if there was ’real proof’ that some states had tried hard to implement the directive but because there were specific, objective reasons why it had been difficult to implement it completely, there might be room for three or four small derogations.
British Euro MP and free range egg producer Stuart Agnew has accused the European Commission of burying its head in the sand over the ban.
Following a recent meeting of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, he said, "The potential disaster here is that English egg producers have invested heavily in the infrastructure needed to comply with the ban and, having met the deadline, will find themselves in unfair competition from suppliers outside of the EU or from member states who have not met the deadline but have been allowed
extensions."
This month the British Egg Industry Council is holding a briefing at Westminster to warn MPs about the consequences for UK egg producers if some EU states are allowed a last-minute derogation to give them more time to comply with the ban.
"This will provide an excellent opportunity for MPs and Peers to hear directly of the industry’s concerns as we approach 1st January 2012 and the full implementation date for the Welfare of Laying Hens Directive across the EU," said BEIC spokesman Kevin Coles.
"In order to maximise attendance at this important event the Ranger has emphasised the importance of free range producers writing directly to their MP and MEPs. The response to date has been very encouraging, with a large number of MPs having been written to."
The UK egg industry is concerned that if some EU member states are allowed more time to comply with the conventional cage ban, eggs from conventional cages in those countries could compete unfairly with eggs from UK producers who have invested to meet the requirements of the EU directive.
If states are allowed a derogation, the UK industry wants the creation of a code to distinguish conventional cage eggs from those produced in enriched systems. It also wants an intra-EU trade ban enforced to ensure that eggs produced in conventional cage systems cannot compete with eggs produced in compliant systems.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has asked the European Commission to be ready to provide sufficient enforcement controls to protect UK producers and to ensure that those producers who have already made significant investment to comply with the legislation by converting out of conventional cages are not disadvantaged if other countries do not meet the 2012 deadline.
She said that if there was a delay to the ban, the aim would be to prohibit non-compliant eggs from entering the UK from another member state.
