Brussels - The European Commission proposed lifting restrictions on mainland British beef exports, more than two years after they were imposed over the mad cow disease crisis.
The proposal, covering meat from animals born after August 1996, will now be discussed by veterinary experts from European Union member states, and probably passed to farm ministers for a final decision.
"Fully in accordance with the scientific advice, the commission now proposes the legal framework for a partial lifting of the ban under the rules of the Date-Based Export Scheme," the Commission said in a statement.
"This scheme will allow the dispatch of deboned fresh meat and meat products from eligible animals born and reared in the United Kingdom after August 1, 1996," it said.
A political decision on the ban is not expected for some months, although there is a small chance the proposal will make it onto the next agenda at a farm ministerial meeting starting on June 22.
Member state veterinary experts are expected to give the proposal a first reading this Friday, with a follow-up meeting scheduled for June 16.
Britain's plan to resume exporting beef from animals born after August 1996 -- the date when a ban on feeding meat and bone meal to animals was fully effective -- has been with the commission for the last nine months.
The commission's endorsement of it will be a major relief to British cattle farmers, who say the worldwide export embargo has devastated their industry and livelihoods, wiping out valuable markets at a stroke.
Ministers have already voted to ease export restrictions in Northern Ireland, where a computer database can track cattle movements, and the incidence of mad cow disease, or BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) has always been much lower.
Britain's Farm Minister Jack Cunningham has repeatedly told his EU counterparts British beef is the safest in Europe, but it remains to be seen whether sceptical member states such as Germany will have the same faith in Britain's mainland scheme.
The British government, which holds the EU presidency, has been pushing the Commission into making its proposal as early as possible, and wants to be able to go into the summit of EU leaders in Cardiff on June 15-16 demonstrating real progress on an issue which dogged the previous Conservative administration.
Britain will be stressing the "born after August 1996" element of its plan eliminates any danger of infected meat entering the food chain. No animals born after that date would have been fed meat and bone meal blamed for transmitting mad cow disease.
The EU imposed the ban on British beef exports in March 1996 after the government admitted a possible link between mad cow disease and a new variant of the human brain-wasting disorder Creutzfeldt- Jakob Disease.
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