991027 EU Studies French Claim British Beef Is UnsafeOctober 9, 1999Brussels - The European Commission said it was examining what France claims to be fresh evidence supporting a continued ban on British beef over fears it cannot be guaranteed free of mad cow disease. European Union scientists are expected to make an initial evaluation of the eight centimeter thick French report next Thursday, when they will inform the Commission that there is either no fresh evidence or ask for it to be studied further. “They can tell us if there is something new,” Commission spokeswoman Thea Emmerling told reporters, adding that the EU's scientific steering committee would meet on October 28. If there was no new evidence, the EU executive “would ensure that EU law was being upheld,” indicating that legal action could start against Paris for failing to respect EU legislation, Commission spokesman Jonathan Faull said. The announcement last week by France's Farm Minister Jean Glavany that its own food agency had concluded the ban should be maintained sent shockwaves around the EU, but particularly in Germany -- the only member state other than France yet to pass national laws ending the 3-1/2-year blockade. German Health Minister Andrea Fischer held talks with EU Food Safety Commissioner David Byrne at which she asked for more information on the French claims ahead of a debate in the German Parliament on October 15. Emmerling said Fischer had said Germany wanted to see EU law being applied and would continue to push the necessary legislation through the Bundesrat. Byrne also promised to update Fischer on a long-planned EU inspection of British measures controlling beef exports set up under the EU's deal in July to remove the ban, which allows only deboned meat from cattle born after August 1996 onto world markets. Anglo-French Relations Damaged The French announcement has prompted British Prime Minister Tony Blair to send a strongly-worded letter to French Premier Lionel Jospin, demanding that EU law be enforced. Britain has been further angered by France blocking shipments of British beef going to other destinations on the Continent. However, Glavany has since said he believed there could be some flexibility on this issue. British Farm Union President Ben Gill said his contacts with the French government last week had shown there was no new evidence in the report. “It's a tissue of fabrication,” he said. “It is transparent this is nothing more than a protectionist approach and it strikes at the heart of the EU's ability to police law. It demands quick political action to resolve this,” Gill added. Britain's farmers, struggling with low market prices and a strong pound, saw their $1 billion export market wiped out overnight when the Commission imposed the ban in March 1996. The move followed a British government admission of a link between eating mad cow infected meat and a new form of the deadly human brain wasting disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD). The mad cow disease, or BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), epidemic has led to millions of cattle being slaughtered. NvCJD has so far claimed about 40 lives in Britain.
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