Brussels - European Union veterinary experts took a first look at a proposal to lift the ban on British beef exports, but postponed a decision for at least a week.
The European Commission proposed easing the worldwide embargo on British beef, imposed more than two years ago at the height of the mad cow disease crisis.
“The Commission presented the scheme and member states asked their initial questions,” an EU said.
"They said it was too early to give their opinions on it."
The plan, known as the Date-Based Export Scheme, would allow a resumption in shipments of meat from animals born after August 1996 -- the date when a ban on feeding meat and bone meal to cattle became fully effective.
Chief veterinary officers from the 15 EU states are expected to give the plan a second reading , although a vote then cannot be assured.
Such is the proposal's political sensitivity that the vets are likely to pass a final decision to EU farm ministers. There is a small chance that the proposal will be discussed by EU farm ministers at a meeting starting on June 22, officials said.
Britain will have to convince its more sceptical EU partners, such as Germany, that strict controls are in place to prevent any non-eligible meat from reaching their markets.
And British farmers will have a hard fight ahead of them -- not only will they have to gain the trust of continental consumers, but the pound's recent strength has left them almost priced out of foreign markets.
EU ministers have already approved a separate scheme -- the Export Certified Herds Scheme -- for Northern Irish beef. The province has an extensive database, which can track cattle movements and ensure animals are from herds free of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) or mad cow disease.
The EU imposed the ban on British beef exports in March 1996 after the government in London admitted a possible link between BSE and a new form of the human brain-wasting disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
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