AN Anglo German working group on the BSE crisis was inaugurated in Strasbourg yesterday, as MEPs from both countries moved to limit the damage done by the British government's hardline stance.
Conservative MEP and agriculture spokesman, Mr Robert Sturdy, insisted the setting up of the group was consistent with his government's general policy. But he also stressed the committee involved only MEPs with agricultural and environmental interests, and that it had "no political members."
The working group was an attempt to join with the Germans
"the largest and most powerful opponents of lifting the ban on British beef" - to eradicate BSE and end the crisis in European beef, he said.
"We are all at the end of our tether with the lack of real information on BSE. All sorts of things are being said in the parliament which are completely untrue. Even some of the Germans in our working group had false ideas about what Britain was doing, because of what their newspapers are telling them."
The group, which also includes the leader of the Conservatives in Europe, Lord Plumb, will meet again next week in Brussels.
The Green Party MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, has raised in the parliament Nigeria's refusal of visas to a delegation from the Oireachtas and the development agency, Trocaire. The group had been seeking to visit Ogoniland.
Speaking during a debate on human rights abuse in Nigeria, Ms McKenna poured scorn on an explanation by the Nigerian government which cited difficulties with its transition to democracy as the reason for the refusal.
The military regime in Lagos did not know the meaning of the word democracy, Ms McKenna said.
She welcomed a parliament resolution calling for an oil embargo.
The parliament yesterday rejected an amendment proposed by the Fine Gael MEP, Mr Alan Gillis, which would have lowered the threshold for payment of the beef deseasonalisation premium.
Mr Gillis said the Commission's proposed threshold would effectively mean that the premium will not be paid in Ireland. He called on the Minister for Agriculture to fight the issue in the Council of Ministers.
