The British government's handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis traumatised farmers and broke animal welfare laws, according to a report to be adopted by Euro-MPs.
A European Parliament committee of inquiry blames officialdom for adding to farmers' woes with red tape and bureaucratic delays in disposing of slaughtered animals.
It warned a mass cull on the scale conducted by the Government during the 2001 crisis "will not be publicly acceptable again".
And it said in any future crisis, emergency vaccination must be a first choice option and not a last resort - something the government has already conceded.
The report, the result of the year-long inquiry by a cross-party panel of MEPs, was described by Ms Caroline Lucas, the inquiry's vice president and Green Party MEP for South East England, as a "damning indictment" of the Government's response to the crisis.
Tory agriculture spokesman in the European Parliament Mr Neil Parish said it proved the government "got it wrong" and failed to listen to rural communities.
But Labour agriculture spokesman in the European Parliament, Gordon Adam, said the report contained "unsubstantiated" opinions, including claims the government was no better prepared for an outbreak now than before.
It also relied mainly on "hindsight", and Mr Adam pointed out that on the day the first UK case was confirmed, 57 farms in 16 counties were already infected - far beyond the scale of any reasonable contingency planning.
The findings, which have no legal force, recognise the Government's emergency measures complied with EU criteria for tackling foot-and-mouth disease.
But it was wrongly assumed that the disease would remain localised, with no more than 10 outbreaks. In the end, the unprecedented outbreak contained 12 "mini epidemics".
PA