British Home Secretary, Mr Howard, last night scored 10 blocking moves in the battle over the ban on British beef
After holding up a series of agreements at talks in Luxembourg, he said the government's non co-operation policy was designed to concentrate minds, and last night's breakthrough in the campaign to relax the ban proved it was working.
Mr Howard spent the day attending discussions on home affairs and justice matters, virtually all of which require unanimous decisions and are thus ripe for the British protest veto.
However, he did not have to use a veto against his biggest target, Europol, because other member states were not ready to approve the plan to set up a pan European police intelligence agency, to be based in The Hague.
But he blocked 10 proposals which Britain would have supported if it were not for the beef crisis.
The Home Secretary's tally brings to 31 the number of measures vetoed by British ministers since the Prime Minister, Mr John Major, announced his non co-operation policy in frustration at the continuing beef ban.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Secretary, Mr Malcolm Rifkind, yesterday raised the prospect of an agreement to ease the EU beef ban in the next couple of weeks as he started out on a Europe wide "charm offensive".
He said there was a "good possibility" of persuading EU governments to agree to a phased end to the ban by the time of the Florence summit of heads of government on June 21st. But he warned that Brit did not view the summit as a crucial milestone in its battle to have the ban overturned.
Mr Rifkind and the Agriculture Minister, Mr Douglas Hogg, were in Brussels for a meeting with the EU Commission President, Mr Jacques Santer, at the start of a four day tour of European capitals designed to push the British case.
They welcomed the lifting of the restrictions on beef derivatives agreed at a meeting of agriculture ministers late last night but said Britain would still seek a framework for the eventual removal of blocks on beef sales.
At a joint press conference in Brussels they brushed aside demands from France and Germany to end a policy of non-co-operation in EU decision making that could ultimately lead to a disastrous bureaucratic logjam.
Mr Rifkind, who earlier in the day met the German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, in Berlin, said the tour was not designed to reach conclusions during the course of this week, but to pave the way for a meeting of minds in coming days.