Berlin bids for a seat at beef talks

Date: 04/11/1999

By Simon Taylor

GERMANY is bidding for a seat at the Anglo-French talks aimed at resolving the bitter dispute over British beef exports.

The move follows warnings from seven of Germany's sixteen states in the parliament's upper house (the Bundesrat) that they would not agree to allow UK beef back onto the market.

Berlin argues that allowing its public health officials to take part in the talks could help the government convince the Länder to agree to lift the ban. They fear that unless swift action is taken to allay their concerns, more Christian Democrat-ruled states could join those supporting the ban to cause political problems for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's SPD-Green government.

The Germans launched their bid to join the talks after the UK and France agreed earlier this week that officials from both sides should meet tomorrow (5 November) to discuss French concerns about the safety measures put in place by the UK to keep potentially contaminated meat out of the food chain.

The decision to hold further talks is widely seen as a face-saving exercise for Paris after a EU committee of independent scientists said last week that there were no grounds for Paris to keep its ban on UK beef imports.

But British Agriculture Minister Nick Brown's decision to agree to the meeting provoked a fresh wave of criticism from farm groups and opposition politicians in the UK, who accused the minister of giving in to French demands.

British farm sources said they were seeking pledges from the government that it would not make any new concessions to France to add to the strict terms already in place for exporting British beef. They also insisted that Paris must not be allowed to use the talks to drag out a decision on lifting the ban given the scientific committee's unanimous decision that UK beef is safe.

Germany is bidding for a seat at the Anglo-French talks aimed at resolving the bitter dispute over British beef exports.