The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has published a report scrutinising the European Commission’s (EC) role in managing the foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in 2001. It states the EC’s response to the crisis was swift, rules properly applied and effective enough to stop the disease from further spreading. The court has, however, criticised the commission’s insufficient preparedness for the epidemic and individual weaknesses of EU member states, including inconsistencies in compensation levels for farmers.

In February 2001 the foot and mouth disease broke out in the EU, first in the UK, then in Ireland, France and the Netherlands. Consequently, the UK destroyed approximately 3 million animals and another million have been killed across the EU territory. The four countries affected spent a total of 2.7 billion euros on compensation to farmers and other contractors and on eradication measures such as decontamination.

The report says the EC’s response prevented a more general crisis in the EU’s food and livestock markets. The commission is currently revising the rules governing the EU’s Emergency Veterinary Fund and hopes to present a formal proposal soon.

At the same time, ECA has raised several issues regarding the System for Identification and Registration of Bovine Animals (SIRB) which covers measures such as ear tagging, animal passports, individual registers and separate national databases for the prevention of infectious diseases.

The report concludes that although the system protects both public health and animal health, several improvements should be made. These include improved coordination, streamlining of operations, controls and applications of sanctions, as well as better information transfer between veterinary services involved.

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