A DEFT tactical retreat by the British Development Minister, Baroness Chalker, saved her government yesterday from the ignominy of being reported as having blocked aid to the Third World in a fit of pique over British beef.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Major, has pledged that his ministers will block all EU decisions requiring unanimity until a framework for lifting the beef ban is agreed. But Lady Chalker, at a meeting of development ministers, agreed to regulations on humanitarian aid that required unanimity.
Under the EU's arcane procedures, the regulations covering aid to the fight against AIDS in the Third World, to refugees in Latin America and Asia, and for sustainable development in the developing world could be passed by a qualified majority, but only if unamended by ministers. Because they had been amended, they required unanimous support before being passed on to MEPs, a nicety that Lady Chalker chose to ignore.
A delighted Minister of State for Development Co-operation, Ms Joan Burton, described the occasion as "one of the most positive meetings I have attended."
She said the key priority had been agreement on regulations for humanitarian aid which had been approved. A spokesman for the Commission said Lady Chalker "did not block anything that would go against the interests of Third World people."
Brussels observers do not believe, however, that Lady Chalker's flexibility marks an easing of the British policy. They warn that on the key decision next Tuesday on the fate of the Europol Convention, Britain is still likely to block ratification.
Britain's EU Commissioner, Mr Neil Kinnock, warned that Britain's non co-operation strategy could backfire. "It will frustrate and it will contradict in some respects, the UK interest he told BBC radio news.
"There are many decisions requiring unanimity with which the UK under the present government is in sympathy. So there is a degree of cutting off noses to spite faces," he warned.
At yesterday's meeting of the Internal Market Council, the British Minister, Mr Roger Freeman, did block a number of measures including a decision on cutting red tape in regulations governing building projects.
But afterwards Mr Freeman astonished journalists by reassuring everyone that his government's protest had made not one jot of difference to work in progress.
"The work of deregulation at national level can and will go on, and preparatory work by Commission officials can and will continue. Life goes on. The Commission certainly doesn't need agreement from the Council of Ministers," he said.
Mr Freeman, who is also in charge of co-ordinating the British government's BSE eradication programme, also surprised journalists with his assertion that the eradication of the disease could take four, five, or six years, about that it may be possible to lift certain parts of the ban before that end state".
