“We haven’t yet received proposals from some of the countries, but we hope we’ll be able to finalize the draft document next week,” Jonas Milius told BNS.
It is planned that the draft document will be discussed during a meeting of EU agriculture ministers. If the EU Agriculture Council’s meeting is not held in the near future, then Lithuanian Agriculture Minister Virginija Baltraitienė will send the request to the European Commission, he said.
Support will be sought for the following three groups of measures: prevention and control, support for small pig farmers, and establishment of a team for the liquidation of outbreaks. Based on preliminary estimates, the EU’s support should amount to hundreds of millions of euros.
The first ASF outbreak in Lithuania was detected in early January in two wild boars close to the border with Belarus. On Jul. 24, the virus was found on a well-protected large pig complex in the eastern part of the country. A total of seven ASF outbreaks have been found in Lithuania until now.
Cases of ASF have been also reported in Latvia and Poland, close to their borders with Belarus.
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