EU ministers reject British call to lift beef export ban

THE EMERGENCY meeting of EU agriculture ministers which adjourned early this morning was expected to resume at 7 a.m. to continue efforts to agree measures to deal with the BSE crisis.

Britain yesterday put forward a plan to slaughter and incinerate over 4.5 million cattle. However early today the ministers were still unconvinced that the British measures were radical enough to restore consumer confidence after the BSE scare.

The Ministers adjourned their talks before 1 a.m., and new proposals to resolve the issue were to be put this morning by the Italian presidency.

The EU ministers rejected a British call for an early lifting of the beef export ban. Still in the balance was a decision on other measures, including Ireland's request for a resumption of the beef intervention system.

Britain wants the EU to pay 80 per cent of the bill involving huge compensation to UK farmers who are otherwise facing ruin because of consumer caution at home and the worldwide ban on British beef imposed by the EU.

The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, warned that the EU was still far from being out of the woods. "Ten years of damage was done to Europe's red meat industry in two days in the Commons," he said.

It was not clear early this morning how far the ministers would go in backing Ireland and France's strong demands for supports for the market, specifically the immediate use of intervention. But their call had been well received, sources said. "We want a home for 50,000 of our cattle" said Mr Yates.

Mr Yates added that the situation in the Egyptian market was clearing up, with an EU trade delegation in Cairo today.

But he said there had been no progress on the Iranian ban and that he would be talking to his Iranian counterpart today.

However, the Irish Farmer's Association yesterday renewed its demand for the matter to be taken up at a political level, again urging the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, to fly to Tehran to help break the logjam.

The key EU beef management committee will meet today to discuss the crisis in the light of the political signal sent from farm ministers.

There was no expectation last night of an early, unambiguous backing for British measures as adequate, or for a lifting of the ban.

The Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, was early this morning involved in intensive negotiations with the British over the key new element of their package of proposed measures a selective slaughter of animals most at risk effectively the slaughter of infected herds, a policy already carried out in Ireland and France.

Mr Fischler's hand was strengthened by the clearly expressed consensus from the meeting that the other measures announced by the British were not sufficient to allay public concern. His talks are understood to have focused on agreeing a definition of "infected herd".

The British Agriculture Minister, Mr Douglas Hogg, opened the discussion yesterday with a presentation of the new measures that Britain is proposing to take. Apart from a willingness to consider selective slaughter, he said the meat of all animals now over 30 months old would be removed from the food chain. The animals would be allowed to live out their productive lives, but on slaughter, the carcasses would be incinerated.

This element of the proposal does not increase the rate at which animals are slaughtered, but simply removes older beasts from the food chain.

Mr Hogg also suggested four fifths of the cost of buying up such cattle for destruction should be borne by the EU. The Commission is believed to be thinking of a figure of closer to half. The Dutch Minister, Mr Jozias van Aartsen, said the British demand was "very exceptional" and most unlikely to be realised.

Commission sources expressed a reluctance to see widespread intervention resuming after two intervention free years, warning that new GATT rules make the future sale of the stored beef impossible on the world markets. Its eventual release back on to the EU market could precipitate a sharp fall in prices.

However, sources suggest political considerations will outweigh Commission doubts and some form of intervention will be agreed today at the beef management committee.

The IFA president, Mr John Donnelly, yesterday in Luxembourg warned of a "free fall" in prices unless special intervention measures were introduced as well as increase in export refunds.