Derek Clark MEP on fears for egg producers

Fears are rife that illegal eggs will flood the country and force UK producers out of business.

[ClickPress, Fri Oct 07 2011] Fears are rife that illegal eggs will flood the country and force UK producers out of business.
East Midlands MEP Derek Clark said the EU was abandoning British egg producers by making no serious attempt to ensure the battery cage ban will be properly enforced or that consumers will be made aware they are buying battery eggs after January 1, 2012.
Mr Clark, UKIP MEP, said: “British egg producers have been completely let down.
“An EU inspectorate will be created and infraction proceedings will be started against non-compliant countries but these measures will be of little or no help because firstly, the inspectorate will hardly know where to start as no fewer than five member states, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Spain and Greece have to date provided the Commission with absolutely no information about their efforts to comply with the legislation.
“Secondly, infraction proceedings are very long-winded and may eventually produce fines that these countries are likely to regard as a ‘licence fee’ to allow them to go on producing battery eggs.”
Mr Clark said the EU made it clear it was the responsibility of ‘member states to ensure compliance, not the Commission’ which was a total abrogation of responsibility for legislation it generated.
He added: “This effectively means British egg producers, who have invested £400m of their own money to comply with the ban are being abandoned and many could go out of business in the face of unfair competition from battery egg producers in other EU member states.
“It becomes more than ever vital that the UK Government takes urgent steps to ensure imported eggs are legal.”