Brussels, 05/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - During the meeting of the management committee for beef and veal last Friday, most of the Member States showed reticence towards the European Commission proposal aiming to replace the (optional) purchase for destruction scheme with a special obligatory purchase system for bovines aged above 30 months,. The novelty of this system, which constitutes one of the cornerstones of the Fischler plan to reabsorb market surplus, consists of offering the alternative to storage to countries (Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark) hostile towards the destruction of meat for "ethical" reasons. The management committee could be brought to vote on this draft regulation during its meeting on 16 March.
Most of the delegations will refuse the support even 30% (70% for the European Union) of the purchase price for animals. These countries favour a 100% Community financing as in the case of the manual intervention scheme, explains one of the management committee members. Countries such as France and Ireland, which are the only ones to truly enforce the present purchase for destruction scheme, doubt that some countries such as Spain or Italy will use the new system. Germany, on its side, is favourable, as it will be able to continue to sell its meat at low prices, as is presently the case.
In a working document that it presented to the committee, the Commission gave details on this special purchase scheme. The latter would consist of buying from the market the animal carcass; - that do not belong to the categories eligible under the normal intervention (young male bovines, bulls, heifers), that is to say cows older than thirty months; - which are free from BSE after having passed the trail of screening tests at the abattoir. This scheme must apply as soon as the countries will have proved their ability to text 100% of the animals above 30 months, or at the latest on 1 July 2001 (end date for the purchase for destruction scheme). For the time being, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Austria have presented sufficient proof of their screening capabilities. Luxembourg and Germany are the only two countries that will be able to use the two systems. As opposed to the present system that works on the basis of a table of standards prices (in relation to the weight of the carcass and the price on the national market), the offers entering into the framework of the special purchase scheme will be attributed through adjudication by the management committee, when the price of cows in one country had fallen below the intervention price for two weeks. The Member States will thus be able to decide whether to store this meat at its own cost or to destroy it. The products stored will then be able to be disposed of (sold or given as humanitarian aid) after approval by the Commission, in order to prevent any disturbance to the market.
Let us add that the present purchase for destruction scheme, which should have covered 500,000 tonnes of beef until 1 July 2001, only worked for 746,000 tonnes, mainly in France and Ireland, and much less in Belgium, Portugal and Luxembourg. It is beginning to be used for infinitesimal quantities of bovines in Spain. Moreover, the management committee decided to buy, under the normal intervention scheme, 34,612 tonnes of beef from: Belgium (40 tonnes), Denmark (65 tonnes), Spain (17,305 tonnes), France (4,566 tonnes), Italy (10,951 tonnes), Austria (1,131 tonnes) and Germany (10 tonnes).