EU Foot and Mouth Law - Blair Got it Wrong

11.36.19am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 1st Oct 2003

Nick Clegg MEP in the European Parliament

A new EU law published this week proves that the British government got it wrong when dealing with the foot and mouth crisis, claims Nick Clegg, Euro-MP for the East Midlands.

New legislation on EU measures to control outbreaks of foot and mouth disease sets out detailed measures to rapidly control and eradicate the disease.

Nick Clegg MEP, the sole Liberal Democrat representative on the European Parliament's Committee of Inquiry investigating the foot and mouth crisis, has welcomed the measures to tackle any future outbreak.

He said: "The new EU law points to a more effective and benign way of dealing with any recurrence of foot and mouth disease."

"The emphasis it places on using emergency ring fence vaccination as a means of controlling a future outbreak, and the fact that the British government has agreed to this, is tantamount to admittance by Tony Blair that he and his ministers got it wrong in 2001."

"The cruel and chaotic scenes of mass slaughter witnessed then must never be repeated, although the subsequent problems of pollution from the mass burial of carcasses will be with us for some time still to come," he added.

Member States must comply with the provisions by 30 June 2004 at the latest.

ENDS