971 million euro to deal with BSE crisis
In the European Commission's first 2001 supplementary and amending budget (SAB), Budget Commissioners Michaele Schreyer has announced plans to free up a further 971 million euro to tackle the BSE crisis through market support, the destruction of animals older than thirty months and extra co-financing for BSE tests. Presenting the measures, the Commissioner said: ' Now the agricultural expenditures are at the ceiling. Necessary new measures must be financed out of savings.' The move follows the Nice European Council's pronouncement that measures proposed by the Commission should be 'in strict compliance with the financial perspective'. According to the Commission, agricultural expenditure for 2001 now totals more than 44,000 million euro. This is 7.44 percent more than for 2000. Schreyer's proposals is 'both urgent and carefully targeted, covering only those needs directly arising from the BSE crisis and not related to any medium-term measures in the bovine sector,' says the Commission. 'The BSE crisis erupted too late last year to be incorporated into the then ongoing budget programme. The main items covered by the proposal are additional costs decided by the Agriculture Council and related to the destruction scheme for animals older than 30 months which cannot enter the food chain (700 million euro), market intervention of the beef meat market (238 million euro) and the co-financing of the BSE tests (33 million euro). The SAB will be financed from the surplus from the previous budget year, after adoption by the Council and European Parliament.