The European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, Mr David Byrne, has criticised Germany for adopting a "nationalistic and isolationist approach" to the problem of BSE in Europe.
Until the first cases of BSE in German-born cattle came to light last Friday, Germany had a "complacent" attitude that hindered a Europe-wide fight against the disease, he said at a press conference in Berlin yesterday. "Germany believed it was BSE-free, that is not the case. I was not surprised as our own experts have been advising us of the likelihood of BSE in Germany for some time."
An EU-wide ban came into effect last month prohibiting the use of material from cattle such as the spinal cord, brains and eyes, which experts believe contain almost 100 per cent of BSE infection risk. However, the ban had been resisted and delayed for three years by Germany and Spain, Mr Byrne said.
"Germany adopted an app roach that was not co-operative. It was the wrong approach," he said. His priority was to restore consumer confidence in beef, and he warned individual states against taking individual action which would lead to consumer confusion elsewhere in Europe.
His comments can be seen as an indirect criticism of the German government, which had announced a ban on meat and bone meal later this week and are now calling for an EU-wide ban. It has been illegal to use this meal to feed cattle since 1994 but it is still used to feed pigs and poultry.
Mr Byrne said it was dangerous for politics and public health to become entangled and he believed Germany's call for an EU ban on the meal was "not unassociated" with the federal government's scramble to save political face.
The government in Berlin went on the defensive yesterday, denying it had arrogantly ignored the BSE threat. "I think we have shown we are capable of acting swiftly and precisely," the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, said yesterday, referring to the ban on meal.
His remarks show a remarkable U-turn by the government. Last week, the agriculture minister, Mr Karl-Heinz Funke, said he was "absolutely convinced" that Germany did not have a BSE problem. The health minister, Ms Andrea Fischer, is sounding a different note. "We deluded ourselves in Germany," she said in a television interview, adding that more cases of BSE could not be ruled out.
The German government had previously said Britain was primarily to blame for the spread of BSE, something Ms Fischer has acknowledged was wrong. "To blame BSE on Britain was a self-delusion and our greatest error," she said.
