The Irish Government must remain vigilant in upcoming Council talks in relation to flexibility for farmers in the implementation of electronic identification system (EID) for bovine animals according to Liam Aylward, MEP for Ireland East and Member of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.    
 
“The government must ensure that the Commission don’t place further administrative burdens on farmers with compulsory Bovine EID.  While the sheep EID system is now in place it was not without a significant degree of teething problems and inconvenience for farmers. Irish farmers must be afforded flexibility on this issue.”
 
The European Commission recently adopted a proposal for the introduction of an electronic identification system (EID) for bovine animals.  Currently, all bovine notifications (births, deaths, animal movements) must be manually registered and converted into an electronic format to the computerised database.  While EID systems aim to strengthen the current traceability system and increase consumer protection, the cost of EID tagging is more expensive than the cost of conventional ID tagging
 
“While there are savings of labour costs for farmers, studies on EID have shown that the direct costs and benefits are not balanced along the production chain.  The costs are mainly supported by the farmers while the benefits affect those further downstream in the markets and slaughterhouses.”
 
“In light of the unbalanced distribution of costs it is essential that bovine EID remains voluntary and optional for farmers and Member States. The Irish government must protect the interests of Irish farmers in this regard and ensure that they are not burdened with costly and unnecessary compulsory EID.”
 
“If the Commission is committed to bolstering traceability and increasing consumer protection it would be more pertinent that they ensure that beef imports from outside the EU, such as those from Mercosur countries are produced to the same high quality and standards as those imposed on EU famers.”
 
The Commission adopted proposals for Bovine EID and will present these to the Agricultural Council at the October meeting.