EUFMD 

History

Despite having a name which may be confused with the EC Commission in Brussels, the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EUFMD) is a Commission established under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). The Commission was established in 1954 at a time when Foot-and-Mouth Disease was ravaging post-war Europe, as a special body under Article XV of the basic texts of the Organisation, with the initial goals of combating FMD in Europe and of co-ordinating the national FMD control programmes.

Through it's efforts to promote research and cooperation between the member countries, the incidence of the disease reduced steadily over the years and by 1992 Europe was free of the disease and decided to stop the costly annual mass vaccination campaigns. Since 1992, there have been occasional re-introductions of FMD to Italy and the Balkans, but these have been localised and sporadic. Before the outbreak of FMD type Asia 1 in Greece in summer 2000, Europe had been entirely free of FMD since 1996.

(See recent history and epidemiology of foot and mouth disease)

Members

EUFMD currently has 33 member countries and the membership covers almost all of Europe.

Constitution

A written constitution governs the activities of the commission and the obligations of the member countries. For the full text of the Basic Texts which include the Constitution, the Rules of Procedure, and the Financial Regulations.

Structure

There are essentially 5 main organs of EUFMD:

1. The Commission itself

2. The Executive Committee

3. The Research Group

4. The Secretariat

5. Tripartite Groups

Activities

The Commission is primarily a forum to foster cooperation between member countries and to co-ordinate their efforts to prevent and control FMD. It also provides technical expertise, epidemiological information and advice to member countries.

Finance

The costs of the Commissions activities are covered through three trust funds: one filled by the contributions of member countries for routine activities and another two funds for special activities such as the creation of vaccination buffer zones to prevent the spread of the disease into Europe. One fund is provided by the EC and the other is provided by donations from non-EC countries.

© European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

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