Brussels, 08/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - "Yesterday's meeting was a failure", was the harsh judgement passed by MEO Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, German Social-Democrat, on the extraordinary meeting of EU Health Ministers on Tuesday, which was essentially given over to severe acute respiratory syndrome (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.13). The Council did nothing but show its goodwill, without deciding on any concrete measures, she said, stating the view that the Member States should have started by "saying how much money they are prepared to devote immediately" to fighting this disease, and that the Commission should have made available "money from the framework programme for research and development, from the research budget or from other budgetary lines". She continued: "I've seen this before. When the BSE crisis erupted, there was apparently no money available. But when things got worse, money was found". She feels that the Member States and the Commission want to play down SARS, when they should "have the courage to draw up a list of measures regulating air travel, including restrictions or quarantine measures for anybody travelling from affected zones". The totally different ways that the Member States were dealing with airline passengers "neither inspires confidence, nor provides the protection to which we are all entitled", she said.