13/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the EU Council adopted a regulation extending till 1 July special transitional measures to fight BSE, which expires on 30 June: measures include the withdrawal of specific at risk materials, export restrictions on the United Kingdom and Portugal, a ban on certain slaughter methods and use of bones from ruminants in the production of minced meat. The Commission had initially planned on making these measures permanent at the end of June but this was not possible because of delays in international discussions regarding a list of countries free of BSE (EUROPE 8 March). Moreover, scientific evaluations of risk in all countries have not yet finished.