EU concern over BSE beef bans

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- As the crisis over mad cow disease widens, the European Commission is meeting to pass judgement on national embargoes of beef and cattle within the EU.

After a sharp increase in the number of French cases of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), the government stepped in to quell consumer panic, banning T-bone steaks and meat-based animal feed.

But many of France's EU partners went further. Spain, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands were among those to impose curbs on imports of French cattle and beef.

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German beef has become the latest to be subjected to import bans, after BSE cases were detected there.

EU farm ministers have agreed all unilateral action had to be assessed by EU scientists, and dropped if found to be unjustified.

The panel will also evaluate steps taken by France, including its blanket ban on meat-based feed, blamed for spreading BSE through the national cattle herd.

"All national measures are being discussed. The commission will act on the basis of the advice," one EU official said.

Germany and Spain are the latest countries to discover cases of BSE, which has been linked to the human form of the brain-wasting new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) that has killed more than 80 Britons.

The discovery hit Germany particularly hard, sending beef sales plummeting, just as in France.

Germany has now joined calls for total ban on meat-based feed for all animals, forming a powerful alliance with France and Britain.

Germany's ruling centre-left coalition will present draft legislation to parliament on Tuesday to ban the meat-based animal feeds amid growing consumer anxiety.

"We should be able to get the legislation through the Bundestag (lower house) and the Bundesrat (upper house) by Friday," the Greens' parliamentary floor leader Rezzo Schlauch said after meeting party colleagues.

"The law should come into effect on Saturday, despite the narrow time schedule," he said.

The EU executive meets for its weekly session on Wednesday, and may take extra steps to reassure consumers across Europe who are shunning beef and sending prices plunging.

EU farm ministers will also hold an emergency BSE meeting on Monday, in part to stop the crisis spilling over into the summit of EU leaders scheduled for a few days later in Nice.

But the scare has widened almost daily. Not all EU countries support such a move.

Austrian Farm Minister Wilhelm Molterer said that extending the existing ban from cattle and sheep to pigs and poultry would lead to much higher imports of protein-rich soybeans from the U.S., raising the issue of genetically modified crops.

"I can't just replace one emotional debate with another," Molterer told state radio.

And EU farm Commissioner Franz Fischler, the architect of the export ban on British beef that was removed last year, has warned a ban on meat-based feed would cost billions of euros.

Commodities markets are closely watching developments in Germany, as there is much speculation that the EU could follow suit if Germany introduces a blanket ban.

Soy prices in Europe have risen strongly on expectations of a ban.

Estonia and Latvia on Tuesday introduced restrictions on the importation of German beef.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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