British put brave face on EU formula to lift beef export ban

EU FARM ministers last night pledged to come up with emergency income support measures to compensate European farmers for losses due to the BSE crisis.

They also signalled to Britain that a process is under way "which should allow the export ban to be progressively lifted on a step by step basis". But they made it clear that Britain would have to strengthen the scope of its proposed 42,000 strong selective cull of at risk animals with "additional measures".

British spokesmen were last night putting a brave face on the Farm Council's formula. While unwilling to break with consensus by opposing the final statement, they issued their own supplementary declaration.

The British Minister of Agriculture, Mr Douglas Hogg, said the Council represented a move in the right direction, but there was a lot more to do. He said he was determined to continue the fight against the "unjust ban".

Asked about their willingness to come up with additional measures, Mr Hogg said they were discussing the issue but had not committed themselves to the slaughter of whole herds.

The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, welcomed the commitment to income support measures which would probably not be approved in detail until June. Ireland would certainly be looking for well in excess of £5 million to £6 million, in addition to a promotional fund for beef.

Yesterday in Brussels the Budget Commissioner, Mr Erkki Liikanen, announced the setting up of a reserve fund of £400 million in the Union's 1997 budget for further slaughtering and intervention. The figure is in addition to an existing £290 million provision for already agreed measures.

The IFA president, Mr John Donnelly, said that they were demanding full compensation for the losses incurred by winter beef processors in the form of an EU beef finishers' premium. "The IFA will insist on full premium compensation of £71 a head for cattle sold between January and mid March and £138 a head for cattle sold between mid March and early June."

While the British are still refusing even to consider applying for a regionalisation of the ban to exclude Northern Ireland, Mr Yates urged them to consider adopting the Irish "slaughter out" policy in the North, under which a full herd is slaughtered when an infected animal is found.

Such a policy, he said, would be much cheaper in the North than in Britain as a whole, and could allow an early lifting of the ban there, which the Government would actively support.

Mr Fischler also signalled his wish to have a rethink on the longer term issue of making beef more acceptable to the public by moving away from industrial farming to more natural methods.

He will bring forward proposals to move towards shifting subsidies to a system under which the Commission can pay extra cash per head in respect of herds that are less densely stocked, predominantly grass fed herds.

Such a move would be of significance to Irish producers whose herds are far less dense than those in Holland or Germany.