No one connected with the beef industry would disagree with the EU farm commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, when he described the BSE crisis as one of the biggest challenges ever faced by the Common Agricultural Policy and the European Union. That must temper the sense of anger and frustration felt by Irish farmers at the convoluted proceedings of the Council of Ministers in Luxembourg. The mechanisms that have functioned, however inadequately, to deal with problems in the past were not designed to cope with the undermining of an entire branch of agriculture and its ancillary activities.
Every passing day however makes it clearer that simple, direct solutions to re-establish consumer confidence and reopen markets outside the EU are unlikely in the short term, and that those who talk in a time scale of several years have a grasp of the reality that must be confronted. In this sense, the restoration of intervention is a practical and welcome response. It cannot be more than a stop gap, and some questions about its benefits for Irish farmers such as the weight ceiling, the categories of animals that will be, eligible, the effect of competitive tendering, and its duration have still to be answered satisfactorily. It will provide some immediate relief to the market, though this will be severely limited in relation to the amount of beef looking for buyers.
The return of intervention, however, is less welcome in that it highlights the shortage of possibilities open to the EU to support the beef industry. While it is a necessary part of the crisis management package, it must not be more than that, as the president of Macra na Feirme, Mr Joe Healy, pointed out yesterday. The main emphasis for Irish farmers must be on creating the conditions which will see Irish beef going back one to the markets, which have been steadily built up in recent years in Europe and outside the EU, and not into the cold store. The case for a substantial increase in export refunds for this purpose is hard to answer as it would certainly be a more cost efficient use of EU resources.
The main element of the BSE crisis is public confidence, and the delay and confusion at the council however much these may be unavoidable because of the EU's way of doing things have not contributed to alleviating this fundamental problem, and may, indeed, have added to it. Britain's perceived reluctance to adopt the radical measures that public reassurance demands is rooted in domestic politics both because of the implications for its budget in the run up to the general election and because it wants to minimise the confession of the abject failure of its earlier policies. Yet the crisis is not a domestic one it affects all of Britain's EU partners. The basis of any solution must be community solidarity.
Producing the comprehensive strategy to restore demand for beef has been complicated by the uncertainty about the scientific evidence relating to BSE and its possible transmission to humans which has not yet been made available for research on an EU basis and the lack of clarity about the British slaughtering proposals.