Beef 'illegally exported'

European Commission Threatens Legal Action over Beef

The European Union banned British exports of beef in March last year because of the BSE crisis, but the Commission says monitoring has revealed that fraudsters are still selling it abroad. An investigation is under way into whether Britain should be prosecuted for what the Commission calls the manifest inefficiency of British controls.

The Commission refused to give details of the alleged fraud, but reports speak of several hundred tonnes of British beef being illegally sent to Belgium, where its UK origin markings were removed and replaced with Belgian stamps.

Accompanied by false papers, the meat is said to have been re-exported to Russia, Egypt and Bosnia, generating export subsidies for the fraudsters. Other illegal shipments are thought to have been sent to France and Spain.

Labour MEP Philip Whitehead, a member of the European Parliament's BSE committee, said any British nationals involved should be dealt with according to the full rigour of the law.

"Everyone involved in our beef industry, which is now regaining its strength and confidence, will know perfectly well that if stupid and selfish individuals have tried to cooperate with some international scam, they have done themselves and their industry down," said Mr Whitehead,

A spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture said the Government was aware of the allegations and did not condone any illegal activity.

It accuses the European Commission of abusing its powers by imposing an illogical and indiscriminate blanket trade blockade which has destroyed jobs and businesses.

Counsel for the National Farmers' Union, Stuart Higgins QC, urged a hearing of the court in Luxembourg to scrutinise the ban and then strike it down as unlawful. The NFU is appearing in court alongside the Government, backed by nine companies involved in the beef and livestock trade.

Mr Higgins told the judges: "The Commission imposed that ban despite the fact that British beef is safe and poses no risk to humans."

The Commission's lawyer, James Macdonald Fleet, argued that all the Commission's actions over BSE had been "entirely appropriate and proportionate."

The European Court's advocate-general will deliver an interim opinion later this year, followed by the final judgement of the court.