THE President of the European Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, agreed last night that the Commission will today re-examine the case for the ban announced yesterday on British beef exports. His move followed a telephone call from a furious British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, protesting at the announcement of a world ban which Britain regards as completely unjustified by scientific evidence.
Late last night, sources in Brussels also suggested the announcement of the ban had been premature, as the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, had not secured the required consent of all the commissioners for an accelerated decision on the issue.
When the issue came before a meeting of the chefs de cabinet for formal approval, it is understood the chefs of both British commissioners, Sir Leon Britian and Mr Neil Kinnock, refused to sign a consent form. However, Mr Fischler announced the ban to a press room filled with hundreds of Mr Fischler's gaffe will compound British rage at the decision and is set to spark a major row at the opening of the Inter Governmental Conference in Turin on Thursday.
Today, leading British veterinary scientists will return to Brussels to make their case to the Union's Standing Veterinary Committee which yesterday voted by 14 states to one in favour of the ban. Observers warn it is difficult to see how they will be persuaded to change their minds.
Acting on the advice of the committee, Mr Fischler had announced the ban on the importation of UK beef and beef products to member states and the imposition of a worldwide ban on their exportation.
The decision meant that Britain, whose £400 million annual beef export trade to the EU has been wiped out at a stroke, was under huge pressure to review its own measures and announce a cull of part of the national herd.
A furious British spokesman described the move as "ramshackle" and "ill thought out" and described the Commission's export ban as ultra vires. British sources complained the measures had little to do with the scientific merits of a ban, and everything to do with protecting the markets of other member states.
Announcing the "decision", Mr Fischler said the issue of compensating the UK would not even be considered by the Commission until the British government came up with new proposals for strengthening and monitoring the effects of its current measures He would not be drawn on what these should be.
Compensation could only be on the basis of measures agreed with the EU as being scientifically necessary, he said, and would have be agreed between the member states.
Mr said that, as a it was not possible to ban was necessary to the problem in the UK help consumers to recover in the meat market".
He said scientists felt that the age cluster of the 10 CJD deaths notified by the British gave cause for concern they were between 18 and 41, while normally CJD was only seen in those over 60.
The ban, which, the Commissioner said, included products from Northern Ireland, extends to all live animals, sperm and embryos, meat of animals that have been or will be slaughtered in the UK, and all products made from beef and veal where the animals' were slaughtered in the UK.
A huge range of products containing gelatine and beef extracts, from food to cosmetics, will now no longer be exportable from the UK. But Mr Fischler said there was no question of a ban on dairy products, as there has been no suggestion that BSE is transmissible through milk.
Britain has also been asked to produce fort nightly reports on developments for a new scientific committee under the chairmanship of a Swiss expert, Prof Weissman.
Other member states have been told to bring their national bans into line with the Commission position the Germans must now lift their ban on Swiss beef.
A spokesman for the Commission said the decision to ring fence the problem would now make it possible for the Commission to take measures to ensure other member states were not denied access to markets.
But a spokesman for the Consumer Affairs Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, said she believed the decision had not gone far enough in applying the precautionary principle. She called for the removal of British beef and beef products from European shops.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Mr Fischler at the weekend sent a sharp rebuke to the British Agriculture Minister, Mr Douglas Hogg, over the lack of consultation with Brussels prior to the British announcement last week.
Mr Fischler's letter said he was "rather surprised" that Mr Hogg's representative at a Brussels meeting on March 18th and 19th did not say a word about the pending announcement.
