WRITTEN QUESTION P-2242/03

by Uma Aaltonen (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(30 June 2003)

Subject: Spread of rabies to countries where the disease is under control

Rabies has been diagnosed in a horse imported into Finland from Estonia in May 2003. The disease was last ascertained in Finland in 1989 and has since been brought under control through vaccination of dogs and cats and of wild animals in south-east Finland, in this case using bait containing the vaccine. According to the WHO classification, Finland is a rabies-free country. Rabies is prevalent throughout Eastern Europe as well as in parts of the Baltic region and Russia close to Finland. In Estonia 422 cases in all were recorded in 2002, namely 355 in wild animals and 67 in domestic animals. Although the eradication of rabies intrinsically lies within the province of national legislation, the situation will become significantly more difficult once the new Member States have joined the EU. Because it will be easier for animals to be transported and moved from one Member State to another and quarantine is to be abolished (the incubation period for rabies can be as long as six months), rabies prevention will pose a much greater challenge at national level.

1. Once quarantine for animals has been abolished, what permanent measures will the Commission take to assist European efforts to combat rabies?

2. Is the Commission providing any form of support for action by future Member States to reduce the incidence of rabies, for instance by taking the initiative of laying bait dosed with vaccine in areas at risk, so as to make it possible to prevent the spread of rabies?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(25 July 2003)

The Commission is aware of the rabies situation in certain new Member States. It is comparable to that prevailing in Germany and France before large-scale wild-animal vaccination programmes were launched in the past decade with Community financial assistance, with spectacular results. Eradication of the disease over vast areas still infected in the mid-90s can now be considered imminent.

The Commission quickly realised that extension of these programmes to the new Member States had to be given priority. Under Council Decision 90/424/EEC on expenditure in the veterinary field(1) the Community has for several years been assisting programmes going beyond the EU's frontiers into Poland and the Czech Republic.

Over the coming years, at the Commission's instigation such efforts will be financed under the PHARE programme, and financial assistance can now be considered assured for the programmes presented by Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia.

In the case of Estonia aid of EUR 2 million has been available since signature of the Financial Memorandum in November 2002. Launching of the programme under the supervision of Agriculture Ministry is accordingly imminent.

It would be wrong to think that enlargement will mean no more quarantine for animals from the new Member States. At the moment there is in fact no quarantine required in the case of such movements except for carnivores entering Ireland, Sweden or the United Kingdom. The rules governing livestock such as horses will not therefore be modified as a result of accession of the new Member States. For domestic carnivores, the recently adopted Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 998/2003 of 26 May 2003 on the animal health requirements applicable to movement of these species(2) takes due account of the imminent enlargement in its provisions on animals coming from these countries.

The only adequate response to the rabies problem in an enlarged Europe therefore lies in wild-animal vaccination programmes in the new Member States. In planning for a large financial contribution to these the Commission has done its part to see that everything is in place to facilitate their execution with all rapidity.

(1) OJ L 224, 18.8.1990.

(2) OJ L 146, 13.6.2003.