Spain rejects €150m payout offer for farms hit by E coli fears

Agriculture commissioner forced to promise better deal to European farmers who lost income during public health panic The European commission on Tuesday promised to pay more than €150m (£134m) to farmers hit by the E coli crisis, following robust lobbying by Spain and France. The agriculture commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, proposed sharing out to farmers affected by falling sales amid the public health panic the sum of €150m, equating to payments worth about 30% of the average market price for the unsold crops. But at the meeting of agriculture ministers in Luxembourg, representatives from several member states demanded more help. Spain immediately warned the €150m would not be enough. Spain has suffered disproportionately from the economic impact of the outbreak, in part because it grows a significant share of Europe’s salad produce but also because blame for the bacteria outbreak at first was attributed to its cucumber crop . “No, Spain does not see €150m as sufficient,” the country’s agriculture minister, Rosa Aguilar, said. She was backed by her French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire. Ciolos then said he would “come back tomorrow with an improved proposal”, but warned that Spanish demands for compensation of 90% or even 100% of market price were unrealistic. “We have to bear in mind that this is public money, and we have to account for its use,” he said. The outbreak, of a newly identified and especially virulent strain of the E Coli bacterium has killed 23 people, all either in, or recently returned, from northern Germany, according to figures compiled by the European Centre for Disease Control. More than 4,200 people have become ill, almost 700 of whom have developed haemolytic uraemic syndrome, a serious complication that affects the blood, kidneys and nervous system. The rate of cases is now slowing. Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks, the health minister for Hamburg, the city thought to be at the centre of the outbreak, said medical staff believed the situation was gradually improving. “We are seeing the first patients discharged, others are getting much better, so the first glimmers of hope are on the horizon.” However, scientists appear to be no closer to establishing the source of the outbreak. After Spanish cucumbers were ruled out, German officials confidently named a bean-sprout farm in Lower Saxony as the likely culprit, only for bacteriological tests to come back negative. German ministers had said there were “strong and clear indications” that bean sprouts from the Gärtenhof organic farm, 40 miles from Hamburg, had spread the E coli bacteria. However, more tests have failed to link the farm to the outbreak. The confusion has seen many Europeans stop buying a range of products, while Russia has banned all EU vegetable imports. EU farming representatives said the sector’s losses had exceeded €400m. Spain has been at the forefront of calls for Germany to pay the bulk of the compensation, a move ruled out by Ciolos, who said it would come from central budgets. At a press conference he refused to speculate on the total bill, saying only that it would be increased, the revised offer to be approved within the next few days. The EU’s health commissioner, John Dalli, has criticised Germany for its “premature conclusions” on the source of the outbreak. “I would like to stress it is crucial that national authorities do not rush to give information on the source of infection which is not proven by bacteriological analysis, as this spreads unjustified fears in the population all over Europe and creates problems for our food producers selling products,” he said before the farm ministers’ meeting. He added: “While such intensive investigations are ongoing, we must be careful not to make premature conclusions.” He said the outbreak had been contained to a relatively small area. He told the European parliament: “I stress that the outbreak is limited geographically to the area surrounding the city of Hamburg, so there is no reason to take action on a European level. [EU-wide] measures against any product are disproportionate.” Scientists say the longer the wait for a definite source, the more likely it is that none will ever be identified. “If we don’t know the likely culprit in a week’s time, we may never know the cause,” said Dr Guénaël Rodier, an infectious diseases expert at the UN’s World Health Organisation. European commission Europe European Union E coli Spain France Farming Peter Walker guardian.co.uk

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