THE Minister for Agriculture yesterday robustly defended the handling of the BSE crisis by the EU's institutions.
Defending the conduct of the Council of Ministers and the Commission to a special committee of inquiry of MEPs in Brussels, Mr Yates warned against judging the institutions unfairly with the benefit of hindsight.
MEPs had set up the inquiry to look at the role of the institutions, and the first hearings had been fanned by press reports in the last two days suggesting that senior Commission officials had sought on a number of occasions since 1990 to remove the BSE issue from the agendas of meetings for fear of the effects on the beef market.
Angry MEPs yesterday spoke of lies and hypocrisy and demanded immediate access to official documents.
The Spanish MEP, Mr Manuel Medina Ortega, who is responsible for drawing up the committee's final report, wanted to know why the actions of the Brussels Commission as well as ministers had been "minimalist", particularly in the early days after the discovery of the disease.
Mr Yates, speaking in his capacity as president of the Council of Agriculture Ministers, promised to facilitate the committee's inquiries and improve communications with the Parliament on the issue through the appointment of an "interlocutor" to act as liaison.
He was followed by the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, who also strongly rejected claims that the Union was more concerned with protecting beef markets that its citizens.
He said that the Commission had always followed scientific advice when it became available. He said the Commission had organised a major conference in 1990, whose results were published not the actions of a Commission whose policy was to suppress scientific debate on BSE", he said.
He promised a complete survey of all Commission documentation which would enable a more detailed response to the committee at a later stage.
Mr Yates said he was not aware of any scientific evidence which had not been evaluated by the Commission, or advice on which the Council had not acted. And he rejected calls from an Italian MEP for a reconsideration of the lifting of the ban on exports of British gelatin and tallow.
Reviewing in detail the record of EU decisions on BSE, the Minister said the Council had "hitherto acted and will continue to act on the basis of two principles the first priority is to ensure the protection of human health, and any measure must be firmly based on the best and most recent scientific evidence." He said the Council had "steadfastly respected these principles".
Mr Yates warned MEPs, however, not to overlook the effects of the crisis on beef markets and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands dependent on the sector, many in areas not affected by BSE.
It is only the second time the European Parliament has set up a special committee of inquiry since it was given such powers under the Maastricht Treaty. The first was on fraud.
A report is due to be produced in November, by which time MEPs will have grilled dozens of ministers, Commission officials and scientific experts on BSE.
Earlier Mr Yates addressed the Parliament's full Agriculture Committee on the priorities of the Irish presidency.
He urged the MEPs to give speedy approval to measures being debated by ministers to support the beef market in the medium and short term.
