Commodities and Agriculture: Commission to back Britain on 'mad cow disease'
The UK will get strong backing from Brussels today when Germany seeks a ban on British beef exports because of fear of 'mad cow disease', or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The European Commission planned to tell Germany that it would take legal action if Bonn attempted to introduce a unilateral ban, commission officials said yesterday. Health ministers of the 12 will also discuss the BSE row tomorrow afternoon. Mr Horst Seehofer, the German health minister, has been the prime mover for action against the UK. Bonn is calling for a ban on all live cattle and beef exports from the UK after the discovery in Germany of BSE imported from the UK. The commission has reminded Germany that it is the EU that sets veterinary rules, and that there is no scientific evidence proving a link between BSE and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, which affects humans. A series of restrictions have been imposed in the UK beef sector, which Britain and the commission say are working. In 1990, certain bovine offals, like brain and spleen, were banned for human consumption. Since June 1990 there has been a ban on the export of live cattle over six months from the UK, and on the progeny of BSE-affected cows. In addition, all British exports of bone-in beef must be certified as coming from herds that have been free of 'mad cow disease' for two years. British officials say that the EU single market will be disrupted unless all member states stick to the scientific evidence, and that Germany's threat of unilateral action risks a collapse in beef consumption similar to the fall that followed the 1990 BSE scare. 'We feel we have a sound case and other member states and the Commission agree with us,' a senior British agriculture official said.
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