NO END TO BEEF BAN SAYS EU COMMISSIONER

Sarah Helm

Brussels

British hopes of securing an early end to the beef ban were dealt another severe blow yesterday when Emma Bonino, Consumer Affairs, said the Commission was "not even thinking about lifting the embargo."

Ms Bonino, a sharp-talking Italian who is better known in Britain as Minister for Fisheries Policy, has recently been appointed by the Commission to oversee public health in the wake of the beef scandal. She looks likely to prove a tougher opponent when it comes to lifting the embargo than Franz Fischler, the Agriculture Commissioner.

A champion of individual and consumer rights throughout her life, Mrs Bonino told the French newspaper, Le Monde: "It is out of the question to weaken the embargo. The truth is we are not ever thinking about lifting the embargo. And we will not be thinking about for a long time."

The commissioner's comments come just four days after Britain submitted new proposals to Brussels for a partial lifting of the embargo, along with certain assurances for further eradication. Presenting the plan, Douglas Hogg, the Agriculture Minister, called on his partners to remember the "Florence agreement", a reference to the much-vaunted deal at last year's June summit. The agreement was presented by the Government as a "victory" and a justification for the "beef war" because it supposedly contained commitments from other European countries to a gradual lifting of the ban.

However, Britain's partners denied that there were any commitments at the time and eight months later they are talking as tough as ever.

The European Commission has no intention of recommending even a partial lifting of the ban until Britain can prove that every possible safeguard is in place. The Commission itself has recently come under fierce criticism from the European Parliament for failing in its duty to monitor mad cow disease in British herds after the first alert in 1989.

Mrs Bonino's new public health post was created m part to defuse criticism from the Parliament and to reassure member states that no such crisis could occur again.