The European Commission needs to ‘wake up to the devastating impact’ EID could have on the European sheep industry.

So says NFU Cymru vice-president Ed Bailey, after appearing as part of a UK delegation at the European Parliament’s agriculture committee.

Mr Bailey said: “At the moment regulation and technology are driving the industry, not the market. It will cost in the region of 12 Euros per head to implement this scheme. In the UK we have got 33.1million sheep which makes it a huge amount of money that the industry cannot afford. The whole European sheep industry is in decline so to force this extra cost on it at this time is just ridiculous.”

Mr Bailey said current ID and batch recording systems are a simple, efficient and cost-effective measure to help control the spread of disease.

He added: “The Commission needs to wake up to the devastating impact that compulsory EID and individual recording is going to have on the whole European sheep industry.”