Resumen de Legislation: Agreement reached on new EU animal health law

• MEMBERS of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Latvian presidency of the European Council of Ministers have reached political agreement on new measures to prevent and deal with animal diseases in Europe.

  The draft Animal Health Law was proposed by the European Commission in May 2013 (VR, May 18, 2013, vol 172, pp 512, 513) and has since been working its way through the European legislative process. The purpose of the new law is to lay down rules for the prevention and control of animal diseases that are transmissible to other animals or to people. In a press release on June 1 announcing that agreement had been reached, the European Parliament explained that the new law would ‘merge and update many scattered items of old legislation, so as to help prevent and halt new outbreaks and keep pace with scientific progress’....