A COMMITTEE of MEPs investigating the handling of the BSE crisis yesterday refrained from urging censure of the Commission unless it implemented key recommendations. Such a motion is the only sanction available to MEPs and, if passed by two thirds of Parliament, would have resulted in the sacking of the Commission.
By 16 votes to 13, the committee removed the recommendation from the report, which is highly critical of Britain's role, that of the current and former Commission - most specifically the former Irish Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Ray MacSharry - and member states.
The decision defuses a potential inter institutional crisis between the Parliament and the Commission, which argued that the form of conditional censure proposed was an illegal attempt by MEPs to force it to implement specific policies in violation of its sole right to initiate policy.
Next week, however, the political groups will meet to discuss the issue and are likely to make it clear that they expect the Commission to indicate a broad acceptance of the report's main recommendations.
Failure to do so may yet trigger a censure motion - the committee's most radical, member, Belgian Socialist Mr Jose Happart, has already started collecting the required 63 votes.
But he is unlikely to succeed, not because his colleagues disagree with the tenor of the report, but because they regard the tactic as counter productive. The committee's president also said European citizens would be angry that the Parliament was not taking stronger action.
