Brussels, 02/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - It was announced on Wednesday by French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin that France has decided to lift the embargo that it had imposed since March 1996 on British beef. This brings to an end the procedure initiated before the Court of Justice. European Commissioner David Byrne welcomed the decision saying he was "glad that the validity of the EU scientific opinion has been vindicated". Mr Raffarin said he had taken this decision in view of the conclusions reached by the "Comité national de sécurité sanitaire" (CNSS), which met on Wednesday morning under the chairmanship of the three ministers in charge of the dossier (Health, Agriculture and Consumers), and the recent opinion of the "Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des aliments" (AFSSA) (See EUROPE of 21 September, p.7). The three ministers concluded that there is no objective public health reason to maintain the embargo on British meat, the press release from Matignon states. Agriculture Minister Hervé Gaymard, who nonetheless takes on board one of the recommendations of the AFSSA intended to reduce potential risks to a maximum, will this week be proposing that the Commission harmonise at European level the testing on animals aged over 24 months that are intended for human consumption. Such testing is only carried out by four Member States (France, Germany, Italy and Spain). The United Kingdom does not carry out testing systematically, since all animals entering its food chain must be at least 30 months old.