EURO BRIEFS
EURO BRIEFS
• FRANCE has postponed its controversial plan to remove spinal cord from all sheep carcasses over six months old until the start of next year. The measure, which is intended to guard against BSE in sheep, was due to take effect this week and would have hit UK exports hard. Farm minister Herve Gaymard said the plan was only being delayed because the French trade was not ready to implement it.
• THE incidence of BSE has stabilised in all member states except Spain and Ireland, EU food safety commissioner, David Byrne, told farm ministers last week. Ireland was a particular cause for concern, he said, though the age profile and seasonal pattern of cases in recent years suggested the incidence should now begin to fall.
• BRUSSELS financial watchdogs are still trying to track down over k2bn (£1.29bn) worth of missing funds, according to the latest report from the commissions anti-fraud office, OLAF. The money relates to over 10,000 cases of fraud or mismanagement, of which 10% are new cases uncovered in 2001. Around 3000 of these are in Italy.
• EU funds to meet the cost of compensation for losses in the value of livestock vaccinated against foot-and-mouth are available, the European Parliaments temporary committee of inquiry was told this week. The loss of stock value was one argument used during the crisis to resist the use of ring vaccination. *