Britain seeks EU approval to compensate pig farms

The Government is to seek EU approval to make emergency payments to farmers who have had pigs stuck down by swine fever.

The Government is to seek EU approval to make emergency payments to farmers who have had pigs stuck down by swine fever.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown also said today a further 200 British farmers would be released from a surveillance zone set up to control the disease.

The EU ban, imposed on English pig exports after a swine fever outbreak, was scaled down last week to apply only to the region surrounding infected farms.

Brown, in a letter to John Godfrey of the National Pig Association, said he was seeking Commission clearance to introduce state payments linked strictly to dealing with animal welfare problems.

He said: "It would be hard to justify compensation for business losses. But I can see that after such a long period of financial difficulty it will be particularly difficult for producers to meet the costs of maintaining animal welfare in the face of disease."

Brown did not mention figures but said he wanted to announce the details before the weekend, if EU approval was received.

Conservative MEP Robert Sturdy said compensation would be in the region of 25 pounds per animal slaughtered. He said Commission experts thought it would approve payment of full market value.

"British farmers join me in demanding to know exactly where the figure of 25 pounds is coming from and why the UK is not paying the almost 75 pounds it costs to raise each pig." the Tories' agriculture spokesman in Brussels said.

Brown insisted he had played fair by the pig farming industry.

"It is because we were able to demonstrate to our European partners that our controls were being rigorously applied that we were able to win some scaling-back of restrictions last week." Brown said.

"A further reduction - in the size of the first surveillance zone - takes effect from 5:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) today, freeing up nearly 200 more farms from movement restrictions."

Swine fever is not dangerous to humans but can decimate a pig population.

Any financial help will be a relief to British farmers, still struggling to recover from the mad cow disease crisis.