Blunt warning to Major over blocking tactic

Date: 20/06/1996

By Rory Watson and Michael Mann

BRITISH Premier John Major risks being sidelined by his 14 EU partners this weekend unless he abandons his controversial policy of non-cooperation with the Union.

With the two-day European summit opening in Florence tomorrow (21 June), the UK government has been warned in no uncertain terms that its disruption campaign must end if there is to be any chance of agreement on the framework plan leading to the gradual lifting of the export ban on British beef.

“To put it bluntly, we are waiting for the non-cooperation policy to be ended. Without that commitment, there will be no agreement in Florence,” Commission President Jacques Santer told MEPs yesterday (19 June).

A senior Commission official afterwards spelt out what this meant. “What is absolutely clear is that if heads of state and government and the Commission have the slightest doubt about Britain's willingness to give up its non-cooperation in exchange for the framework plan, then there will be absolutely no discussion of the plan at Florence.”

Rome, while confident that a deal could fall into place this weekend, will also shoot down any attempt to hijack the summit.

“If that were the case - although I do not think it will happen - then the presidency would shoulder its responsibility and ensure that decisions of the European Council could be taken by 14 if they could not be taken by 15,” said Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini.

His Luxembourg counterpart Jacques Poos struck a similar tone, insisting BSE was a technical, scientific problem and should not feature in the discussions between government leaders.

“This should be left to the technical committees and we should tell John Major 'We won't discuss this. Let's turn our attention to the topics on the agenda',” he said.

Heading that list will be efforts by summiteers to inject some much-needed impetus into the search for both an effective EU anti-unemployment strategy and for wide-reaching reforms to the Union.

“I want to make the Florence summit the summit for jobs, just as Madrid was the currency summit. I want to restore confidence among the citizens of Europe and for them all to know that we are dealing with the day-to-day problems of direct concern to them,” said Santer this week.

Outlining the framework plan drafted by the Commission for the gradual lifting of the beef export ban, he insisted its implementation would depend on public health measures to eradicate BSE at source and to restore consumer confidence - and not on political posturing.

The four-stage plan is a modified version of the scheme tabled by the UK last week. But in a clear snub to London, the Commission rejected calls for British beef exports to non-EU countries to resume while the ban remains in force within the Union.

It accepts the UK's suggestion that different categories of animal could be exempted from the ban provided precise criteria have been met, but says the anti-BSE measures already in place will have to be strengthened by extending the selective slaughter programme to cover animals born in 1989-90 - a condition accepted by the UK at a meeting of EU vets yesterday.

A final decision on each stage in the lifting of the ban would depend on a vote in the Standing Veterinary Committee rubber-stamped by the Commission. This again raises the spectre of an inconclusive

vote, forcing the Commission to decide whether to push measures through under its own powers as it did earlier this month when lifting the ban on beef derivatives.

Meanwhile, the Commission yesterday rejected British claims in the European Court of Justice that the ban was “disproportionate and discriminates between consumers and producers”. An interim judgement is expected within two to three weeks.