South East of England MEP Nirj Deva, a tireless advocate of the British countryside has today (Friday) slammed the European Commission for their decision to withhold more than £700 million of compensation for farmers who lost animals as a result of Foot and Mouth disease.

Under EU rules, the Government is entitled to claim sixty percent of the cost of compensation for the crisis. Brussels bureaucrats, however, seem less than keen to pay out.

Speaking from his office in London the MEP said:

“It is outrageous that more than two years since the stunning countryside of the South East of England was torn apart by Foot and Mouth disease the EU has only delivered a fraction of the compensation it is legally obliged to pay.

“To add insult to injury, the European Commission has announced that it will cap this payment at £250 million, leaving our farmers out of pocket to the tune of £700 million!

Neil Parish MEP the Conservative Agriculture Spokesman in the European Parliament said:

"The Government must explain to British farmers why they are being short changed. The Commission doesn't believe the UK Government's figures or trust the way it handled the outbreak.

This shows how badly managed the crisis was by the UK Government. It allowed costs to run completely out of control, and the European Commission is not impressed.

It is a shocking indictment of the government that the EU has decided not to pay such a large proportion of the compensation claim."