Cyprus has requested financial support and the immediate commencement of vaccinations to address the foot-and-mouth outbreak, with 500,000 vaccines earmarked for Cyprus expected to be sent on Tuesday.

On Monday, Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou met in Brussels with the health and agriculture commissioners, Olivér Várhelyi and Christophe Hansen, who responded positively to Cyprus’ request for help.

“I have requested financial help from both for our farmers. There was a positive response from both, so the official procedure will begin,” Panayiotou said.

The minister said she asked for vaccines to be sent to Cyprus immediately, to which Várhelyi responded positively and promised that the process will begin on Tuesday.

Várhelyi will be in Cyprus this week for other purposes “but we will combine things”, Panayiotou added.

According to Panayiotou, the commissioner said the were half a million available vaccines for Cyprus at this moment.

In a post on X, Várhelyi said “our priority is to contain the outbreak fast and support farmers”.

He added that “we will also support Cyprus with all the available EU tools, including funding and compensation options.”

Asked about the vaccines delivered to the north on February 13, Várhelyi said “it is too early to make an assessment”.

An EU official told the Cyprus News Agency that the European Commission could deploy on-site expert support to Cyprus in the form of an EUVET team, which would be arriving in Cyprus on Tuesday.

The EUVET team will present feedback on its mission to an upcoming meeting of the standing committee on animal health.

Regarding her meeting with Hansen, the minister said they agreed do discuss the diseases European farmers are having to deal with at the next agriculture ministers council.

The informal council, she added, would be focusing on crisis management tools, whether from diseases or natural phenomena.