MEPs set to criticise UK veto strategy

Date: 30/05/1996

THE European Parliament will have its first opportunity next week to pass judgement on the UK's policy of non-cooperation with its EU partners in the crisis over mad cow disease.

After Liberal group leader Gijs de Vries failed in his efforts last week to have the latest turn of events debated during the Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg, MEPs are now preparing to launch a fierce attack on London's controversial strategy.

Organisers of the Parliament's two-day session in Brussels next week expect Euro MPs to use a statement on Thursday (6 June) by the Italian presidency on the state of play in the BSE crisis to condemn the blocking tactics which are beginning to slow down the pace of EU business.

Criticism of British Prime Minister John Major's ultimatum to his colleagues in the Union has already emerged from across the political spectrum, with some of the harshest comments coming from his government's parliamentary allies, the European People's Party (EPP).

German EPP member Hans-Gert Pöttering said that “a policy of vetoes and threats cannot go very far in a community founded on solidarity”. Four of his fellow Christian Democrat colleagues - Peter Liese, Klaus-Heiner Lehne, Georg Jarzembowski and Thomas Mann - even suggested that the Union should halt the EU budget compensation payments negotiated by the UK over a decade ago.

Socialist MEPs have been equally critical, with former French European Affairs Minister Elisabeth Guigou calling for a parliamentary debate “without delay”, and her French colleague André Laignel branding Major's attempts to “take European consumers hostage” as unacceptable.

German Socialist member Willi Görlach has warned London that there are natural limits to the possible success of its policy, given that a large number of EU ministerial decisions are taken by majority vote, and has even suggested that the UK's presence is not really necessary at Council of Ministers' meetings.

British Conservatives have tried to draw some of the sting out of the escalating argument by establishing a BSE-eradication joint working party with German Christian Democrat colleagues.

“It is a Europe-wide problem and it needs a Europe-wide solution. The key is consumer confidence in the markets, not the bans themselves,” Tom Spencer, chairman of the British Conservative MEPs said after the group's inaugural meeting last week.

The British Euro MPs have targeted German members first in their bid to respond to continental criticism, but are expected to widen their diplomatic campaign in the weeks ahead if the beef export ban remains in place.