The European Commission will decide today whether to expand the scope of restrictions due to African swine fever.

BarcelonaThe European Commission will decide this Wednesday at 3 p.m. whether or not to expand the 20-kilometer radius of restrictions imposed due to African swine fever (ASF), which affects 64 municipalities in the Barcelona area. This was confirmed by the Catalan Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, in a statement to the Catalan Parliament. "A delegation from the European Commission [...] must decide which regionalization will be applied across Europe, whether it will be the 20-kilometer radius or at the provincial level," he stated. This comes after Tuesday's announcement. The number of positive cases of the disease will rise to nine. Among wild boars.

The perimeter affected by the restrictions will determine which areas can be exported to other European countries and will affect any regionalization that non-EU countries can implement. According to Commission sources speaking to ARA, although Wednesday's decision is purely sanitary, it will directly affect which territories the sector can trade with. It's worth remembering that the ban on exports from outside the EU initially affects the entire national territory, and that the Ministry of Agriculture must negotiate regionalization on a country-by-country basis.

Some countries will follow the same criteria dictated by the EU – as is the case with the United Kingdom, according to Minister Luis Planas – while others, such as China, have already indicated that the restrictions will be limited to the Barcelona area. The Commission's decision is expected to be made public this Wednesday and is anticipated to be published this Thursday in the Official Journal of the EU. The Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed will have to ratify it – or modify it, if it deems it appropriate – at its next meeting, which will take place on December 16 and 17. And the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed will have to ratify it—or modify it, if it deems it appropriate—at its next meeting, which will take place on December 16 and 17.

In parallel, Ordeig has confirmed that the positive cases announced on Tuesday remain. "We still have nine positive cases," he said this Wednesday in statements from the Parliament, which he considered positive because, after five days since the announcement of the first case of African swine fever (ASF), so far all cases have been found within the central area of the outbreak and have been wild boars, without affecting domestic pigs or any pig farms.

Work-related consequences

At the company level, the meat processing company Grupo Jorge laid off 300 temporary workers hired through a temporary employment agency, according to a statement from the Workers' Commissions (CCOO) union, which warned that thousands of jobs are "at risk" due to the African swine fever outbreak. CCOO requested an "urgent" meeting with the Catalan government and the Spanish government and demands that, in cases where companies lay off workers, they do so by activating temporary workforce reduction plans (ERTEs). Furthermore, the union is calling on Grupo Jorge's management to "sit down and negotiate." Meanwhile, the Catalan government announced on Tuesday the opening of a €50 million credit line from the Catalan Finance Institute (ICF) for companies in the pork sector that require urgent financial assistance due to the impact of the outbreak. This funding line is available, but "as of noon today [Wednesday], there had been no requests yet," stated the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, after a meeting between her ministry and the Departments of Agriculture and Business at the Parliament. The Catalan Government will approve another €10 million line of funding on Tuesday, expandable by another €10 million, to begin providing "direct aid" to farms and businesses affected by African swine fever (ASF). "At the moment, we don't have any agreements in place, but we will review them as they become available," she emphasized. The Catalan Government is also working with the European Commission and the Spanish government to coordinate other lines of economic support for the sector. Both Ordeig and Romero will appear next week before the Parliament's Agriculture Committee to report on the state of the epidemic. Ordeig calls for "unity."

With the outbreak of the crisis, the Catalan government established a two-pronged restriction zone to try to control the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak. The first zone, 6 km in diameter, coincides with the area where the infected wild boars have been found and affects 12 towns, where access to the natural environment has been prohibited. The same has been done for the entire Collserola Park. In the second zone, 20 km in diameter, leisure activities, hunting, activities related to biodiversity, and any activities that interfere with wild boar population control and biosecurity measures are restricted.

Pending the Commission's decision, Ordeig has called for "unity" among political parties and said that a "serious image" of crisis management must be projected. "The image we must project is one of rigor, seriousness, determination, responsibility, and awareness of what is at stake," he said. Regarding the criticism from political parties that President Salvador Illa has not returned from Mexico, where he is on an official trip, to address the crisis, Ordeig asserted that "this country is very fortunate to have the leading expert in health crises" that the government could have.