STRASBOURG, France, Feb 19 (Reuter) - The European Parliament condemned European Commission President Jacques Santer and Britain on Wednesday for serious errors in the way they handled the mad cow crisis but stopped short of immediate sanctions. It adopted a scathing report by a special committee of inquiry that accused the Commission and Britain of giving the beef market priority over public health, failing to enforce eradication measures and minimising the risks of the disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The parliament voted by 422 to 49 with 48 abstentions in favour of a joint resolution on the report, tabled by the parliament's three main political groups - the Socialists, Christian Democrats and Liberals. The resolution condemned "the behaviour of the UK Government and its management of the BSE crisis and deplores the refusal of its Minister of Agriculture to attend and give evidence to the committee." It also called on the Commission to take "urgent and effective" action to implement the r

eport's recommendations by November 1997, warning that otherwise it would present a motion of censure for the dismissal of Santer and his 19 commissioners But the parliament rejected all but one of 12 amendments to the resolution, including a demand that the Commission take legal action against the British government. On Tuesday, Santer tried to persuade parliament that the reforms the Commission planned to take would be sufficient. These included a shake-up of the Commission's food safety services that would put the popular consumer affairs chief, Emma Bonino, in overall control. He proposed that the European Parliament be offered the right of veto over EU health policy, saying it should be given joint decision-making powers with EU ministers in thatfield. The crisis over BSE erupted in March 1996 when the British government admitted that BSE was linked to a deadly human equivalent. The admission caused consumer panic, undermined the beef market and led to a worldwide ban on British beef exports.