THE three Northern Ireland MEPs, together with representatives of farming and meat processing interests, met the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, in Belfast yesterday and agreed to jointly press for a regional initiative aimed at securing special status for the North's beef exports to Europe.
Mr Yates, who is president of the European Farm Council this year, and the MEPs - the Rev Ian Paisley (DUP), Mr John Hume (SDLP) and Mr Jim Nicholson (UUP) - agreed that a technical document should be produced setting out BSE eradication measures in the North, including an accelerated cull.
The document aims, in the first place to persuade the British government that Northern Ireland beef should be treated separately and be exempted from the general EU ban on British beef.
Mr Yates said: "We agreed on a way to proceed which is to produce a technical document to deal with the issues of an accelerated cull in Northern Ireland a certification of herds that practicably can cover the vast majority of herds in Northern Ireland and a protocol vis a vis animal movement - taking out progeny of BSE animals - that would basically form a blueprint that would in my view, have a realistic prospect in the short to medium term of getting a regional initiative which would allow the ban to be lifted in Northern Ireland."
Mr Hume said that for a number of reasons, the North had a very powerful case for special status for its beef. Agriculture was the major industry, and the BSE rate was much lower in the North than in Britain.
Dr Paisley said they were grateful to Mr Yates for accepting the MEPs' invitation to the meeting. This was a political matter, he said, and "I wouldn't be sitting with him if he was only the Minister for Agriculture of the South of Ireland." The great obstacle to getting special consideration for Northern Ireland beef was the British government, he added.
Mr Nicholson said there was still a lot of scepticism among the other member states of the EU. "We have to be honest and tell our farmers that there is no short term solution," he said.
Mr Yates said he was glad to have met the unified voice of all the beef farmers and meat processors of the North.
They had set out a route for a regional initiative, and the British government should now treat Northern Ireland as a first pilot scheme for implementing the Florence agreement on selective culling.
This way ahead had a realistic prospect of success, he believed, and if it succeeded in having the ban lifted for the North, this could be the precursor to getting the ban lifted across the UK.