Brussels, 04/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The EU 15 Agriculture Ministers, gathered this Monday in Brussels in special Council to examine the special measures proposed by the Commission to restore consumer confidence in beef and eradicate the mad cow crisis, have approved through qualified majority the decision to ban for six months (from 1 January 2001 to 1 July 2001) the use of meal based on animal proteins in the feed of all reared animals held, fattened or raised for the production of foodstuff by products. This ban will not apply to fish meals, which could in all legality enter into animal feed other than the ruminants, according to the control measures to be set (fish, pigs and poultry could thus be fed with these fish meals). The other exceptions concern: a) non-ruminant gelatine for the coating of additives, b) bi-calcic phosphates, c) milk and milk products in breeding animals.
These animal fats should be filtered from 1 January 2001. Finland and Germany voted against this decision. The former did so because it considered the measure excessive for a country like Finland which has so far been spared from the mad cow epidemic, and the latter because it considers, on the contrary, that the decision does not go far enough (the new German legislation bans fish flour also).
The Commission welcomed the agreement on this Community measure that it continues to think would have been superfluous if the Member States had correctly carried out controls to ensure that meat and bone meal, already banned for cattle, had not been unduly included in animal feed. During the evening, the Council began a restricted session for examination of the other measures presented by Commissioners Byrne (protection of health and consumers) and Fischler (agriculture), mainly the combined market support measures.