Brussels, Belgium - The European Union Commission proposed Wednesday to ban the export of beef from Portugal for nine months and to bar its export of live cattle for at least 18 months.
EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler said the proposed ban on beef exports will expire after nine months unless there is still evidence of meat safety problems in Portugal.
The EU acted after its monitoring missions found that the cases of mad cow disease in Portugal had climbed to more than 60 in October from 30 in May.
“The situation is serious,” the EU's Commissioner for Consumer Affairs Emma Bonino told reporters.
The two proposals by the EU executive Commission must be endorsed by a majority of EU countries. An EU veterinary committee is expected to vote on the issue Friday.
Portugal's Farm Minister Luis Capoulas Santos called the proposals “unfair, excessive and inappropriate.”
“It is just as safe to eat meat in Portugal as in any other EU country,” the minister told reporters in Lisbon.
There are currently 67 cases of mad cow disease -- or bovine spongiform encephalopathy -- in Portugal. BSE in beef has been linked to a fatal brain ailment in humans.
The Commission has claimed Portugal was not enforcing an EU ban on the use of the remains of bovine animals in feed for bovine animals or rules on the treatment of such remains used in feed for pigs and poultry.
BSE is believed to have spread in Europe through animal feed.
Portugal is a relatively small beef and cattle exporter. It exported 1,500 tons of beef last year including 700 tons to Spain, 600 tons to Angola and 200 tons to Belgium and Luxembourg. It also exported 1,600 tons of live cattle, the vast majority of which went to Spain.
The Commission says it will help compensate Portugal financially for the ban, but said it was too early to give a figure.
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