CELEX: 51973PC0080
Language: en
Date: 1970-01-30
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION concerning measures against foot and mouth disease (Submitted by the Council to the Commission)

ARCHIVES HISTORIQUES
DE LA COMMISSION
COLLECTION RELIEE DES
DOCUMENTS "COM"
COM (73) 80
Vol. 1973/0010
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 ---pagebreak--- COMMISSION                OP     THE       EUROPEAN              COMMUNITIES
                                                      COM ( 73 ) 80 final
                                                      Brussels , 30 . January 1973
                                     " Proposal for a
                                    COUNCIL DECISION
                        concerning measures against foot and
                                       mouth disease
                   ( Submitted "by the Council to the Commission )
 COM ( 73 ) 80 final
 ---pagebreak---                                 EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
  Following the recrudescence of A-22 foot and mouth disease in south-eastern
  Europe , the Director-General of FAO on 1 June 1972 wrote to President Mansholt
  asking for an EEC cash contribution to replenish the Assistance Fund sot up by
  FAO in 1962 to help secure Europe from invasion by a foreign virus of the
  disease ,
  FAO first appealed in 1962 for funds to prevent the SAT-1 foot and mouth disease
  which ''had broken out in the Middle East and Turkey from entering Europe .      It
  appealed again when a second epidemic , this time of strain A-22 , occurred in '
  the same a,rea in 19&4 -  Between 1962 and 1968 EEC and eleven European countries
  acting individually provided FAO with cash and vaccines to the total value of
  U 726 539 .
  This Assistance Fund has now been used up , and in view of the new threat to
. Europe , FAO is again asking for cash contributions from the European countries ,
  and in particular from the Community .
  A-22 foot and mouth disease broke out in Greece on 14 April of this year , appearing
  first , almost simultaneously , in three provinces of Thrace (Evros , Xanthi and ■
  Drama). Thereafter it spread rapidly to other parts of Greece.
  A number of outbreaks hnva r,lso occurred in Turkish Thrp.ce* The first Greek outbreaks
   derived from *>, consignment of me-it , ?nd probably livestock , from Turkey.
  The new cash contribution for which FAO- is asking amount s to one U.S. cent per ..
  head of cattle .   The money is intended mainly for the purchase Of vaccine , to be
  used to establish buffer zones serving to prevent the disease from spreading and
  carry out inoculations in the neighbourhood of the outbreaks so as to help the
  countries concerned to put down the infection .
  In considering whether to contribute , the following points in particular should
  be borne in mind :
  1 » The A-22 virus is a foreign strain against which Community livestock are
      unprotected.
                                                                                 • • • /• • •
                                                        I
 ---pagebreak---                                        - 2 -
2 . The vaccines currently used in the Member States for the yearly foot and
    mouth inoculations are ineffective against A-22 .
3 . The presence of A-22 in south-eastern Europe , and in Greece in particular , is
    a grave threat to the adjacent countries , and hence to all countries of Eurot>e ,
    The Community would be highly vulnerable to the disease , which could thus
    spread very rapidly and so. entail substantial loss .
4 . There is at this time under consideration in the Council a Commission prot>osal
    for establishing a Community stock of vaccine of which Member States , should
    the disease appear in their territories , could make emergency use until such
    time as vaccine prepared in their own laboratories became available .   This
    precaution should , however , be supplemented by action outside the Community
    in the localities where the disease is already present .
As on the previous occasions , supervision to see that the sums furnished were laid
out in accordance with their appointed purpose could be exercised by an EEC re­
presentative on an FAO/lOE/EEC advisory committee .
Member States Experts whom Commission officials have consulted on the desirability
of the project are in favour.
PAO states that the United Kingdom , Sweden , Norway , Switzerland and Hungary have
already responded to its appeal , and other countries have promised to contribute .
As there is no provision in the 1973 Budget to cover the expenditure involved ,
an appropriation for the purpose will have to be made in a supplementary budget .
 ---pagebreak---                                 Proposal for a
                               Council Decision
                concerning measures against foot and mouth disea.se
THE COUNCIL OP THE EUKOPEAN COMMUNITIES ,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community , and
in particular Article 43 thereof ,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ,
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament ,
VJhereas an enidemic of foot and mouth disease , caused "by a virus foreign to EEC ,
is at present affecting certain areas of south-eastern Eurone in Greece and Turkey
whereas this epidemic if not promptly stemmed may well spread to the territory of
the Community ; tfhereas such a development would gravely endanger livestock in the
Community ; whereas the third countries in question should therefore be helped
to control the epidemic .
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION  :
                                   Article 1
The Community shall contribute the sum of 5^4 000 units of account towards the
drive undertaken in Greece and Turkey against the foreign strain of foot and
mouth desease .
                                   Article 2
The Commission shall be responsible for supervising the deployment of the moneys
referred to in Article 1 , and shall report to the Council on the implementation of
this Decision .
 ---pagebreak---                                     Article 3
This Decision is addressed to the Member States .
Done at Brussels .                                Por the Council
                                                    The President