MEPs advised to drop action on trap ban

Date: 22/02/1996

By Michael Mann

THE European Parliament's legal experts are advising MEPs not to begin court proceedings against the Commission over its decision to delay the ban on imports of furs from animals caught using leghold traps.

The legal affairs committee is today (22 February) expected to endorse its experts' opinion that by the time the legal process was over it would be too late.

“Our feeling is that the Court would tell us we were wasting their time. By the time proceedings were completed, the likelihood is that the Commission's new proposals would have come into force,” said a Parliament official.

Today's vote comes after environment committee chairman Ken Collins asked the legal affairs committee to consider whether the Commission had acted illegally by opting to extend a delay in the ban until the start of 1997.

While experts feel that the Commission failed to honour its legal duty to bring in implementing legislation to bring the ban into effect and to establish a list of countries using accepted trapping standards, they believe that to pursue the matter in court would be a largely academic exercise.

The Parliament has now formally received the proposal to extend the ban and agreement on this is likely before any legal action could be completed.

MEPs also acknowledge that the Commission could point to possible GATT problems if it tried to go ahead with the ban at this stage.