ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED UNDER THE FRAMEWORK OF THE EUFMD/EC AGREEMENT

the activities funded under the EC programme. A short movie on the Open Session at Jerez, Spain, was also shown. The Chairman and Executive congratulated the Secretariat on their industry and achievements over the past year and suggested the progress needed to be widely known, and that the leaflet be sent to all member states and the wider EuFMD network including those participating in EuFMD actions in the past years.

Activities conducted under the framework of the EuFMD/EC Agreement

The Secretary took the Session through the activities undertaken on the nine components of the EuFMD/EC Workplan. Given that the four year agreement with the EC for the programme will be completed in September 2013, and that all activities of the Commission are planned on a two-year basis with the opportunity to stop or modify activities taken at the Regular Sessions – the “General Assemblies” - the major in country programmes such as with the TransCaucasus Countries (TCC) and Iran are in a final Phase with activities ceasing (TCC) before the April Session or soon after (Iran). He drew attention to issues affecting implementation or progress, in particular: 1. Surveillance for FMD in Egypt; the good work with Egypt over the period 2010-12, which cost < 100k USD and had established excellent working relationships and monthly reporting, had now ceased since no decision was taken either by the Executive or the EC in response to the FAO request in July 2012 for support following the SAT2 incursions even though the recommendation of the 84th Executive was clear on this point2 .Given the situation with SAT2 and other African FMDV in North Africa, this is now a gap of some concern. The Executive needs to be aware that it is a primary mandate of the Commission to monitor the risk situation in the neighbourhood and a continuity of involvement with countries is usually essential to receiving the type of information needed to assess risk. 2. The implementation arrangements for the gap analysis missions in the Balkan, non-EU countries; these missions are now taking place but were behind schedule and had not been completed (by Pirbright Institute) before the 85th Session. 3. Considering that FMDV surveillance through the Lab Networks approach had been positively evaluated by the Standing Technical Committee as being excellent value for money, it was unfortunate that the objections raised by some parties at the 84th Session had been made on a misunderstanding of how EuFMD acted (in supports FAO led Regional Lab Networks in Africa) and on the basis of the mandate of Commission decisions taken at the past Executive and General Session (Assembly) levels. 4. That the continuation or revision of the WRL Contract (for 150,000 per annum in 2011-12) needs a decision, relating to the period in 2013 before the new EC agreement is signed. The financial expenditure on each component was reported under Item 9. The Chairman congratulated the Secretariat on the amount of activities managed by the small team and on the quality of the reports. In discussion, it was agreed that the first two issues are areas of the current work plan and need attention by the Chairman, Secretary and EC. Attention to the four topics should be given in the future work programme to be presented at the 40th Session for approval.

2 84th Session report: “The EuFMD should continue to support the VS in Egypt to undertake surveillance and develop their longer term FMD control plan in line with the PCP framework, and the EC is requested to respond to the proposal made through the FAO.”