Government on the chicken run over egg imports

Thursday, January 5 2012

West Midlands MEP Mike Nattrass has called on the Government to safeguard thousands of British jobs by banning imports of illegally produced battery cage eggs.

The UKIP MEP has welcomed news that the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) has taken the first steps towards launching judicial review proceedings against the Government and its refusal to ban battery cage eggs, which are being produced illegally by a host of EU member states including Spain and Italy.

Last October, Mr Nattrass warned the British egg industry was being “caged in” by new EU regulations which UK producers have obeyed but foreign EU competitors have ignored.

More than a dozen EU member states continue to produce eggs from battery hens despite an EU ban on their sale which came into force on January 1 and despite being given more than 10 years to comply.

Mr Nattrass said that despite this huge capital outlay by British producers the Government has still refused a ban on imports of illegally produced eggs. The BEIC is now calling on the Government to review its current position.

Commenting this week, Mr Nattrass said: “I welcome the efforts being made by the BEIC and pressure on the Government to listen to UK egg producers who have complied with the EU regulations at great cost.

“British egg producers have invested £400m to comply with the EU requirements while other member states continue to flout the rules. So what is our Government doing? It is refusing to ban imports of these cheap illegal eggs which should be labelled with a skull and cross bones.

“The Government’s stance is clearly 'to hell with animal welfare, to hell with our egg producers and to hell with those who have spent all their money complying with EU rules'. The moral of this story is that it does not pay to comply with EU rules” added Mr Nattrass.