Let us choose on EID - Mark Williams (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)

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Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire <post@cwsplibdems.org.uk>

Let us choose on EID - Mark Williams

October 14, 2008 12:00 AM
Originally published by Welsh Liberal Democrats

Speaking ahead of the debate he has secured on the electronic identification of sheep, Ceredigion's Welsh Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams has called for the proposal to be made voluntary.

In the debate, which takes place tomorrow in Westminster Hall, Mark Williams will detail the concerns over the technical difficulties facing the system, and the financial concerns of farmers, to Jane Kennedy MP, the new Minister for Farming and the Environment. Mark Williams will today join with fellow Welsh Liberal Democrat MPs Roger Williams and Lembit Öpik, in contacting all the UK's MEPs asking them to consider signing the European Parliament's Written Declaration against the plan. If over half of all MEPs sign this declaration then this will be noted in the minutes as the Parliament's position. Commenting, Mark Williams said: "These proposals are ill-conceived and what we are looking for now is for the Commission to allow individual countries to choose whether they implement the system. "There are advantages to EID and there are countries where this might make sense, but in the UK the problems clearly outweigh the benefits. "Given the increasing pressure on farm incomes, this would be an unwelcome financial burden at the worst possible time, and there isn't even a system that reliably works in our conditions." On the letter signed by Mr Williams and his Welsh Liberal Democrat colleagues, Roger Williams MP and Lembit Öpik MP, he added: "It is important that representatives from the UK make clear our disagreement with this proposal, and I congratulate the excellent cross-party campaign that has taken place on this issue. "Getting more than half of all MEPs to sign looks set to be an uphill struggle, but at the very least I hope we will be able to secure the vast majority of UK MEPs, whoever and wherever they represent."