Re: Mad cow on the loose again!
Originally Posted by
Bread
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On instruction from Brussels... you seem to have missed that part. It's only been in the last year or two France have lifted the ban on British beef.
In 1988, London banned the use of animal feed from animal remains. This 'meat meal' was and is considered to be the presumed cause of BSE. But the
British government was particularly lax in checking that ban. In this way the forbidden animal feed could continue to be carefree for several years. The discovery of this deliberate export of dangerous British meat-and-bone meal caused an avalanche of indignation and criticism, especially in France.
Until recently,
the European Commission did not in any way put pressure on the British to ban mad cow disease. For example, between June 1990 and May 1994, the EU did not conduct any inspections in Great Britain. This is all the more surprising, since European Commission officials already denounced inadequate controls on the feed ban in May 1990 in an "internal" report.
In addition, according to the European Parliament's inquiry committee, the European Commission was very easily influenced by the British. Because the British experts were over-represented in the EU's scientific advisory committees. Officially, there was an obvious reason for this: BSE occurred mainly in Great Britain. But MEPs expressed their doubts about the
impartiality of these British experts, who often have close ties with the Ministry of Agriculture in London.
Medina Ortega lashes out at former Commissioner of Agriculture Ray Macsharry, who threatened in 1990 with legal action against Member States who wanted to ban the import of British beef because of BSE.