Diclofenac in europe

I wrote to all West Midlands MEPs in March 2014 drawing their attention to the diclofenac issue. I had one reply from Phil Bennion MEP which suggested I write to the commission. I duly did this and got a prompt but rather unsatisfactory reply stating the current policy and outlining consultations which were ongoing. After the Euro elections I wrote again to the new batch of MEPs and had a very encouraging reply from Sion Simon MEP, who agreed to take positive actions with Commission and in the Parliament. He had been unaware of the issue before reading my letter. He also pointed out that any EU citizen can submit a petition to the European Parliament asking them to consider and debate particular issues. There is an online form at : http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/00533cec74/Petitions.html If enough RSPB members petition about diclofenac maybe we can get the European Parliament to act? Also even if you wrote in the past without effect, the body of MEPs has changed so it is definitely worth writing again.
  • Thanks very much for sharing this Roy.

    I had a brief catch up with my colleagues in SEO (the Spanish Birdlife partner) and Birdlife Europe. They remain very concerned about the threat to vultures from diclofenac and will continue to fight to get it banned for veterinary use. You can read about SEO's work to date on their website here: www.seo.org/.../diclofenaco, and hopefully between Roy and I we'll be able to share further updates here later in the year about their ongoing work.

    Steph

  • I've had an update from our BirdLife secretariat in Europe on vet diclofenac in Spain and Portugal. Today a coalition of Birdlife partners, WWF and the Vulture Conservation Foundation have launched their campaign to get veterinary diclofenac banned in Europe.

    If you'd like to get involved and help our BirdLife partners SEO (Spain) and SPEA (Portugal), you can sign the petition here: www.banvetdiclofenac.com/.../act. There also lots of information and resources on the website about why diclofenac is so damaging to vultures and why vultures themselves are so important.

    If you're on social media you can share BirdLife's messages

    -     Facebook post (in English and French): www.facebook.com/.../296867124056234

    -     Twitter post (in English): twitter.com/.../885416396615712769

    or write your own using their hashtag #BanVetDiclofenac and of course the petition link: www.banvetdiclofenac.com/.../act!