Socialists lead attack on MEPs round on Major for "mad cow war"

MEPs ROUNDED on the British prime minister yesterday, with the Socialists leading the attack on what they dubbed Mr John Major's "mad cow war".

The president of the French Socialists, Ms Elizabeth Guigou, accused him of making hostages of the EU's, institutions with his threat to paralyse the work of the Union.

She suggested he would better spend his time fighting BSE than fighting the ban, decisions on which should be influenced by considerations of public health alone.

A Belgian MEP, Mr Willie de Klercq, said Mr Major was playing "panic football". His tactics were clearly influenced by electoral considerations, Mr de Klercq added, but he was making an "historic blunder" in threatening the Union.

British Conservative MEPs, meanwhile, adopted a more conciliatory note, stressing the need to "explain" their government's decision, but also recognising the problems caused by the crisis for other EU members, especially Germany.

The party's spokeswoman on consumer affairs, Dr Caroline Jackson, called on the Commission to create an EU beef quality assurance scheme as the first step towards restoring consumer confidence.

Fianna Fail MEP Mr Liam Hyland said the British government's stance was short sighted and ill judged, and would serve only to further sour relations within the EU.

Speaking in a debate on agricultural prices, he said: "The irony is that the British beef industry has actually suffered less than its counterparts in the other EU member states, despite the fact that it is Britain which precipitated the crisis."

He called on the European Commission to prioritise the compensation of farmers most seriously affected by the collapse of the market.

Mr Pat Cox called the British decision "crude blackmail" and said it would do nothing to secure either political consensus or market confidence.

The British government had had to be "browbeaten into a begrudging response to the market crisis that they unleashed", which was now causing every beef animal sold in Ireland to be sold at a loss.

He urged speedy compensation for the losses suffered by winter beef producers, and said the deseasonalisation premium should be paid at the full rate on steers slaughtered up to next June.

The leader of the British Labour MEPs, Mr Wayne David, accused Mr Major of having gone "over the top".

He said his "empty gesture politics" were no way to pursue the lifting of the ban.