EUROPE's leaders rallied round beleaguered Britain here yesterday, declaring one after another that the beef crisis is an EU one which will require significant financial contributions. "We'll pay what is necessary," the Danish Prime Minister, Mr Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, told his colleagues.
There was also relief that pressures on third country bans against other member states appear to be easing following the announcement by the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, that Egypt is to allow three blocked Irish shipments into Alexandria.
France's President Chirac joined the calls for financial solidarity with Britain. "When there's a fire in the house" he told a press conference, "you don't save the water for washing up. You put the fire out."
The German Chancellor. Dr Helmut Kohl, appealed to the German public to remember the EU's support for the eradication of swine fever in 1993. They could and should do no less for Britain. And many of the leaders sympathised with the British prime minister's complaint of "media hysteria", with the Austrian chancellor referring to "mad press disease".
Mr Major told his fellow prime ministers of some of the extra measures Britain intends to take. Sources suggest these will include a slaughter of four million animals aged over 30 months. But the British preferred to take quiet soundings on the details in Brussels ahead of the key emergency farm ministers' meeting on Monday.
Although Mr Major complained about the imposition of an export ban, he expressed his gratitude to the leaders for their support and said he wished the Euro sceptics could see the debate and the extent to which Europe was rallying round.
Mr Bruton emphasised that the problem was "a European problem and has to be dealt with in a European way". He acknowledged the irony involved in Britain seeking support from the CAP and said Britain needs "to begin to think of Europe not as place out there but as something they are very much part of."
