Britian may still face prosecution by EU over beef standards

EU Launches Europe-wide Legal Battle Over Beef

EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler said, "The meticulous implementation of all legislation relating to BSE is vital if it is to be eradicated and the possible risks to human health pending eradication are to be avoided."

He called on the ten - Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Italy and Portugal - to take immediate action so he could drop proceedings. France is the biggest culprit. It has refused to implement new EU rules on processing animal waste at high temperatures to destroy the BSE agent.

The others are in the dock for breaching the same law and failing to enforce the ban on using animal protein in cattle feed. The source of BSE was feed containing tissue from sheep infected with scrapie.

The Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham has demanded that EU countries implement the same tough health safeguards as Britain. He has set a deadline of July 22 for them to agree an EU-wide ban on offal, which carries the BSE agent, or face a unilateral British ban on beef which does not meet British standards.

But Germany and Belgium have led opposition to a European ban, claiming that countries with little or no BSE should not be forced to take the same expensive measures as Britain.

The Commission gave Britain a clean bill of health, saying that despite regular inspections and meticulous attention to complaints and press reports, there was no evidence of any breaches of EU rules. But it warned that it was still considering taking Britain to court over measures imposed at the start of the BSE crisis.

Last year officials said that the UK Government had breached single market rules by enforcing the ban on beef from animals over 30 months on EU imports as well. The Commission said it was still studying complaints against a number of countries, including Britain, that they had taken unilateral action to control BSE which infringed single market law.

However a spokesman said no action was likely before the autumn. "Our priority at the moment in relation to BSE is to take action to tighten up measures which ensure consumer safety," he said.