Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-16-Speech-2-143"
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"en.20000516.6.2-143"2
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"Mr President, I will omit replying to that particular remark. Can I first of all thank you very much for giving me the floor and can I pay tribute to the rapporteur and indeed to Mr Böge. As someone who was in the last Parliament I know how much thankless time and effort they have put in since BSE first began in a very difficult area to try and find a resolution and a way forward to help everyone in a very sensible way. I think both of them not only take credit for themselves but indeed bring credit to this Parliament for the way in which they have carried out that duty.
BSE has unfortunately been with us for some considerable time and I suspect that we have to recognise that it will probably be with us for some years ahead. We have to try to find ways by which we can control the disease of BSE and TSE and at the same time create the consumer confidence that is needed because consumer confidence has been lost. With respect to Mr Martinez I will only say one word to him – sludge. I will say no more as far as that is concerned. Everybody has problems in the European Union of one type or the other and no-one should try to make or take advantage of the other's problem.
However, whatever we do, we should not overburden the producer because he has already been considerably overburdened. As to the argument whether you slaughter the whole of the herd, there is no scientific evidence to say you should. There are many instances in my area where maybe BSE occurred five, six or seven years ago in one animal and there has never been another case since. Once we get to the stage where we have a vaccine or some way of identifying or testing if an animal has BSE, then there is an argument for testing the rest of the herd and if there is a trigger level whereby it goes beyond that, then the whole herd should be taken out. But it would be wilful carnage to simply go in and slaughter good animals in the thought or the notion that BSE may possibly be in the whole herd. That would be a drastic approach.
One other point: where I come from, in recent years there has been a continuing downward trend. Indeed, in Northern Ireland last year, we only had, I think, three identifiable cases of BSE and the projection for this year is one or at worst maybe two. I was listening to what the rapporteur said that if there are clear reasons then she would agree for areas that have low instances of BSE to have certain controls and mechanisms. That is an important thing to recognise because in my area farmers feel very secure because of the very low instances we have of BSE and because of the strict controls that we have monitored and made sure worked over recent years. That is perhaps why our situation is much better than the rest of the United Kingdom. This is an area which has to be looked at in the months ahead – we must create the confidence within ourselves that we can begin to move forward as we begin, hopefully, to see the back of the TSE/BSE problem."@en1
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"Nicholson, James (PPE-DE )."1
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