Luis-Vicențiu Lazarus (NI), an independent member of the European Parliament, speaking in Brussels about swine fever and sheep plague: What does the European Commission want? Do they want us to import everything from outside Europe? Well, what have our farmers been working for their whole lives? To end up going bankrupt and losing everything?

Luis-Vicențiu Lazarus (NI): “Does this European Commission want to solve some problems related to animal diseases, or not? Basically, swine fever hit us first. It is said here that there are no funds to find solutions for eradicating this bluetongue disease. But for swine fever, there were funds; research was conducted and carried out.

And what was the result? None. Even today, there is no vaccine to eradicate swine fever. And right now, swine fever is present in several European countries, including Romania. But what was achieved, so to speak, in the end? What was achieved is that Romania went from being a pork exporter to a pork importer.

And now I sit and think: after swine fever came sheep plague. Sheep plague has put Romania in a position where it is no longer allowed to export any live sheep to the European Union. Under these circumstances, if a country—and I happen to be from there, Romania—had problems eradicating swine fever because the European Commission didn’t provide any solutions, and if, when it had sheep plague, trade was banned, and sheep exports were banned, and right now, after a year or so, they’re still banned, then what’s the logic behind all this?

I mean, where is the European Commission trying to go with this? Does it want to destroy all the farmers? Does it want nothing to be raised in Europe anymore? Has it also signed the treaty with Mercosur? Does it want to bring animals only from emerging markets into Europe? We did have some rules here, though. We have followed certain rules. Our farmers have followed certain rules. Now we are abandoning all the rules and becoming a sort of no man’s land, a territory for imports.”

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