MEPs dash farmers’ hopes of swift accord

Date: 05/09/1996

By Michael Mann

MEPs dealt a blow to EU farmers' hopes of rapid relief from the BSE crisis this week by refusing to hurry through their opinion on the European Commission's proposals to reform the troubled beef sector.

The latest problem comes amid fresh allegations of Commission attempts to cover up the potential public health risks posed by BSE.

The decision by the Parliament's agriculture committee means that the full chamber will probably not vote on the reform plan until its 21-25 October plenary session, dashing hopes that farm ministers might agree a set of aid measures at their meeting beginning on 16 September.

Following the Commission's decision last week to use its own powers to prop up the French market in animals up to ten months old, officials suggest that it may now seek the temporary lifting of the intervention limit for 1996 and an extension of intervention to 'store cattle' for September.

Meanwhile, the Parliament's committee of inquiry into the Union's handling of the crisis will reconvene on 16 September.

Its first session this week saw a robust defence of EU policy by Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler and Irish Farm Minister Ivan Yates. Yates criticised MEPs for “making very strong claims and serious allegations” before making a “proper evaluation of all the available facts”. Fischler provided the committee with an exhaustive résumé of all the measures taken so far, and claimed not to know of “any campaign of disinformation by the Commission”.

But Socialist member Philip Whitehead suggested Fischler's in-depth statement was a tactical ploy designed to fill time and avoid having to face too many questions.

Whitehead said Fischler would have to appear before the committee again, as would Guy Legras, the director-general for agriculture, who was accused this week of attempting to stifle public debate on the potential health risks from BSE. But Whitehead rejected talk of a witch-hunt against individuals, stressing the important thing was to ensure that “sins of omission should not be replicated”.

The latest controversy erupted at the start of the week following the leak of a 1993 letter from Legras, the Commission's senior agricultural official for more than a decade, stressing that “in order to maintain public confidence”, it was “essential not to provoke a reopening of the debate”.

As the volume of research into BSE grows, the Scientific Veterinary Committee will meet tomorrow (6 September) to evaluate the latest data on the vertical transmission of BSE from mother to calf.

Research suggesting maternal transmission of the disease was possible has threatened to blow apart the UK's policy of selective slaughter. But Commission officials are uncertain whether scientists will feel it necessary to recommend any extension of the cull. Such a move would be met with distaste in the UK in the light of an independent study by a group of British scientists which was highly critical of the extent of the agreed selective slaughter policy. Predicting the number of BSE cases would dwindle to just a few thousand before disappearing completely in 2001, the team suggested almost as many affected animals could be destroyed with a cull of 44,000, rather than the 147,000 set as a prerequisite for the staged lifting of the export ban.

But a Commission spokesman said “it would be very difficult to sell to the Commission a programme which would involve the elimination of fewer BSE cases”.

Officials are also working hard to allay concerns about sheepmeat safety, following revelations that - under laboratory conditions - BSE could be passed to sheep. Vertical transmission, the scale of the cull and the sheep question will fill the agenda of the Scientific Veterinary Committee on 6 September, the Standing Veterinary Committee on 10 September and the Multi-Disciplinary Committee on 16 September.