EU Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare Olivér Várhelyi is in Cyprus on Friday for key meetings on the foot-and-mouth disease crisis, with the Cypriot government awaiting an answer to its request to derogate from EU rules so that not all animals in infected units are culled.
Phileleftheros information says the chances of the European Commission giving a positive response are remote.
Várhelyi went on Friday morning to the ZENON Coordination Centre at Larnaca airport for a meeting with Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment Minister Maria Panayiotou and representatives of affected livestock units.
He is also due to meet the parties involved in the issue, including farming organisations, producer representatives and officials from the relevant state services. He will then hold meetings with representatives of political parties before being received by the President of the Republic at the Presidential Palace.
Várhelyi is expected to make statements at the Presidential Palace.
Information from Phileleftheros
Despite intense pressure and requests from Nicosia for an exemption from the culling of animals in infected units, the information arriving from Brussels is discouraging. According to sources, it is considered extremely difficult, if not impossible, for any deviation to be granted, as such a move has never occurred in the past for similar cases within the EU.
The European Commission, after reviewing Cyprus’s specific data (geographic isolation, small production scale), appears to be insisting on the strict application of Regulation 2020/687. As reported, even the intervention of the President of the Republic with Ursula von der Leyen does not seem capable of changing the facts, with all eyes now turned to today’s visit by the European Commissioner.
