Fate of key BSE proposals lies in farm ministers’ hands

Date: 05/03/1998

By Myles Neligan

FARM ministers will have to decide the fate of two key BSE proposals after EU vets rejected plans for a ban on infected livestock offals and failed to give enough support to a partial easing of the ban on UK beef for the measure to go through.

The influential Standing Veterinary Committee (SVC) threw out the European Commission's latest proposal for a limited ban on specified risk materials (SRMs) by an overwhelming majority yesterday (4 March).

The Committee, made up of the chief veterinary officers from each member state, voted by ten to four, with one abstention, in favour of a proposal to exempt beef from certified BSE-free herds in Northern Ireland from the Commission's March 1996 ban on UK beef exports. But under the SVC's voting rules, the majority was not big enough to be conclusive.

Both measures will now be forwarded to the next meeting of EU agriculture ministers on 16 March for a final decision.

There had been widespread speculation prior to yesterday's vote that amendments to the SRM ban proposed by the Commission last week - which would have delayed its entry into force for a further three months and exempted certain EU countries altogether - would be enough to bring recalcitrant member states onside.

In the event, however, only Sweden, Spain and Greece supported the measure, with all the others voting against.

Most of those still opposed to the SRM ban feel that the Commission's latest proposal does not go far enough and are pushing for an unconditional exemption.

“We have never had a native case of BSE and so would have been eligible for a total exemption under the amendments introduced last week. But we could not be absolutely sure that our application would be successful,” said a German official.

The UK voted against the proposal for the opposite reason, namely that the Commission's amendments would make the SRM ban too weak. London argues that the EU should fall into line with its own much tougher restrictions.

But the UK was pleased with the outcome of the vote on the certified herds scheme. Only four countries (Germany, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg) voted against the proposal, with France abstaining.

If farm ministers vote the same way later this month, the plan will go through because different voting rules in the Council of Ministers mean that only a simple majority of member states is required.

“This is a very encouraging result. Had France not abstained, the proposal would have been carried by the required qualified majority,” said British Farm Minister Jack Cunningham, predicting the proposal would be approved on 16 March.