The European Court has been slammed for its decision to impose an “extremely low” fine on Italy for “blatantly flouting the rules” on the EU-wide battery cage ban.
Urging the European Commission to demand concrete measures are now taken to avoid any similar situation from happening again, SNP MEP Alyn Smith said he wants to see a “full schedule” of inspections across every country not yet fully compliant with the poultry industry ban.
“We all knew this was going to happen,” he said.
“Even the commission was aware that there would be non-compliance after the deadline and that was years before we even reached the deadline.
“Doing absolutely nothing to avoid this situation from occurring, whilst knowing fine well that it would, is completely absurd,” he said.
“And, to add insult to injury, the punishment for blatantly flouting the rules seems to be a tiny fine.”
Mr Smith said such “idiocy” on the part of the commission for not stepping in sooner does nothing to combat rising anti-EU sentiment, and only serves to feed it instead.
“It is a harder task to justify to Scottish farmers why abiding by EU rules is so important when the repercussion for just ignoring the rules is merely a small smack on the back of the hand,” he said.
“I have today written to the commission to demand an explanation for this approach, and for reassurance that lessons have been well-learned from this affair.
“I want to see steps taken immediately to see that Scotland’s farmers are no longer punished financially for playing by the rules while others merely flout them,” he said.