Reuters
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Germany has already agreed on tighter feed restrictions
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MADRID,
Spain -- The European Union commissioner for food safety says
he is confident agriculture ministers will agree to a ban on
all meat-based animal feed as a means to combat BSE, or mad
cow disease.
David Byrne's
proposal to ban the meat and bone meal which is believed to
be a cause of mad cow disease received a setback on Thursday
when EU veterinary chiefs were unable to reach a decision.
They passed
the issue to a farm ministers' meeting to be held on Monday
where he expects a more positive outcome.
"I
expect that we will achieve consensus on Monday," Byrne
told a news conference in Madrid.
"There may be some amendments here or there, but as long
as the proposal that has been announced remains substantially
intact, I will be happy."
Byrne proposes
that a ban should last six months initially, starting from January
1.
Feeding meat-based meal to cattle is believed to be a cause
of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Scientists
suspect eating tainted meat can lead to the deadly human form,
new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which has killed 85 people
in Britain and two in France since 1996.
Move for an
EU-wide ban come as Germany's upper house of parliament approved
a unilateral ban on meat and bonemeal in animal feed.
The legislation,
banning the feed for pigs and poultry as well as cattle and sheep,
was approved by the parliament's lower house on Thursday and the
express passage of the ban ensures it can take effect from Saturday.
German officials
are also checking whether pastures spread the disease and are
considering burning huge stocks of animal feed in power plants.
Consumers
have been unsettled by fears that eating beef could lead to an
outbreak in Germany of vCJD.
Faced with
the first cases of the disease in Germany and Spain last week,
the European Commission was forced this week to propose tough
new controls including the controversial feed ban.
But even if
farm ministers reach agreement on Monday, EU diplomats believe
French President Jacques Chirac will use his country's position
as EU president to press at the summit for more financial help
for his country's beef farmers.
A package
of financial compensation could cover the destruction of meat
and bone meal, the culling of untested cattle aged above 30 months
and the growing of more oilseeds needed as an alternative to meat-based
fodder.
The compensation
could run to five billion euros ($4.37 billion) a year.
Even so, an EU-wide ban on all meat-based animal feed, coming
in the wake of the dramatic rise in French BSE cases and the recent
discovery of the disease in Germany and Spain, is not expected
to receive universal support among member states.
Austrian Farm
Minister Wilhelm Molterer said that extending the existing ban
from cattle and sheep to pigs and poultry would lead to much higher
imports of protein-rich soybeans from the United States, raising
the issue of genetically modified crops.
"I can't
just replace one emotional debate with another," Molterer
told state radio.
And EU food and safety commissioner Franz Fischler, the architect
of the export ban on British beef that was removed last year,
has warned that a ban would cost billions of euros.
The commission
will also rule on whether national bans on French meat by countries
including Spain, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands were justified.
EU farm ministers
agreed last week that all national action in the crisis would
be judged by EU scientists and dropped if found unjustified.
The EU executive
may also look at extra steps to reassure consumers across Europe
who are shunning beef and sending prices plummeting.
If the farm
ministers' meeting fails on Monday, a summit of European leaders
in Nice, France two days later will have little choice but to
make time for the beef crisis.
"Farm
ministers cannot afford to come away with nothing. Consumer opinion
on beef is running so high," Paul Brenton, from the Brussels-based
Centre for European Policy Studies, said.
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