The recently published Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/68 seeks to expand the areas affected by emergency controls in southern France.
January 5, 2026 – The Commission’s Implementing Decision refers to, and amends the Annex I to Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1708, which established emergency animal health measures in response to an outbreak of Lumpy Skin Disease virus on French territory. The amendment updates the restricted zones within France, to which the emergency controls apply. It also explicitly mentions that the epidemic has expanded in Occitania, to regions bordering Spain.
The Decision is addressed to the French Republic. Its practical effects, therefore, fall on French competent authorities responsible for animal health, operators moving live cattle, and those trading in bovine germinal products from the affected zones. It may also affect Member States receiving movements of cattle or germinal products from these regions, indirectly, through the conditions attached to these movements.
Why this matters:
Lumpy skin disease is a listed disease under the Animal Health Law (Regulation (EU) 2016/429), and its presence in France triggers movement restrictions with implications for intra-EU trade in live cattle and bovine products. This ammendment reveals that the epidemic has expanded in Southern France, so new operators have become subject to emergency controls.
This negatively affects bovine farmers in the region, and is likely to result on heightened costs and restrictions on the production of bovine derivates produced within the region. It must be noted that Occitania is France’s leading region when it comes to agriculture, with over 160,000 jobs depending on this sector.
