Brussels, 19/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - Friday evening, the "beef" management committee approved the European Commission's proposal aimed at introducing, until the end of the year, a scheme for the purchase for destruction of storage of the carcasses of cows aged over 30 months which have successfully past bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) screening tests. The Netherlands and Denmark (the latter even refusing to vote) opposed this market measure, whereas eight countries abstained (Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland). This new scheme will co-exist, for a transitional period, with the current scheme for the purchase for destruction which, for the moment, has only concerned 302,000 heads of cattle (essentially in France and Ireland), whereas it should have concerned 2 million cattle The management committee, which had even been hostile, at its last meeting (see EUROPE of 5/6 March, p.6) to take on board 30% of the expenditure, finally agreed to give its go-ahead to this scheme, and that, essentially, for two reasons: firstly, all countries could but acknowledge the need to "clear the market", and, secondly, the Commission made changes in relation to the first version of its text: - obligation for the Netherlands and Denmark to use the new system, whereas they were exempted from the current one; - abolition of the "sufficient screening capacity" clause (prove that 100% of the animals of over thirty months may be tested), thereby enabling all countries to use the new scheme from now on. Member States will also be able to use the two systems until 1 July (date when the new scheme will replace the current one), date when the obligation of screen 100% of the animals of over thirty months takes effect.
Purchases by the Commission will take the form of adjudication by the management committee, when the price falls below national intervention prices. The "differentiated triggering thresholds" by Member states are calculated in relation to the average price for cows in 1997, 1998 and 1999, modified by a coefficient between the weight of the beef and that of cows. Which gives: Belgium, 180 euro/100 kg until 30 June 2001 and 167.3 from July to December; Denmark, 178.2 and 165.6; Germany 177.7 and 165.2; Greece, 158 and 146.9; Spain, 158 and 146.9; France 218.3 and 202.9; Ireland, 193.3 and 179.6; Italy, 158 and 146.9; Luxembourg, 188.2 and 174..9, the Netherlands, 185.2 and 172.1; Austria, 161.5 and 150.1; Portugal, 158 and 146.9; Finland, 169.4 and 157.4; Sweden, 205.7 and 191.1.
The maximum purchase price must not exceed the intervention price plus 14 euro/100 kg (weight of carcasses). The date of the first submission of offers is set at 17 April, the second on 30 April.
In addition, the committee decided that the Commission would buy 30,796 tonnes of young male beef (Belgium, 100 t, Spain 14 572 t, France, 7 739 t, Italy, 7 145 t, Austria 810 t) of which 430 tonnes in Germany in the framework of the "safety net". Due to the steep rise in the German and Dutch markets, these two countries are to emerge from the "safety net".