THE former EU Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Ray MacSharry, who is to be questioned this morning by MEPs, strongly defended his and the European Commission's handling of the BSE crisis in the early 1990s.
But Mr MacSharry, who will appear before the European Parliament's Special Committee of Inquiry into BSE, faces tough questions over whether senior Commission officials sought to play down the issue and restrict the number of meetings being held on the BSE issue and, if so, on whose authority.
Official documents and personal papers obtained by the French newspaper, Liberation, and seen by The Irish Times, but not by Mr MacSharry, suggest that there may have been an unwillingness to see the Commission take a strong interventionist line with Britain and that officials were strongly encouraged not to call unnecessary" meetings.
They include an a aide memoire by the head of the agriculture directorate, Mr Guy Legras, of a meeting with Mr MacSharry's cabinet in 1990 which sums up one discussion with the words, "BSE stop any meeting." A memo the next month notes the instruction of a senior official to a meeting of the Standing Veterinary Committee to deal with the question with "extreme care and not take any unnecessary action". Yet it records that BSE cases in Britain had then risen to 18,545.
A memo from the chef de cabinet to Mr MacSharry warns against expenditure on veterinary measures to combat BSE without Mr MacSharry's explicit approval.
Mr MacSharry insists that BSE was treated as a matter of "top priority" and disputes any suggestions there was ever any discouragement of meetings. "Definitely not," he said last night. "Nor do I recall at any time suggesting such. Because in fact the same evidence you are talking about from Legras, in the same sentence, goes on to say that in that period there were up to 160 meetings including public conferences. . . So it's absolutely rubbish to suggest that anybody suggested that there was to be a ban on any kind of meetings.
How does he explain the aide memoire? "He, Legras, would have to explain that," Mr MacSharry said. "I didn't make any notes. I can tell you that during my time as commissioner, contrary to any suggestion made by anybody, the matter was discussed at the Scientific Veterinary Committee and at the Standing Veterinary Committee on at least 60 occasions between 1990 and 1992. Does that suggest that anybody said there should not be any meetings?"
Mr MacSharry added: "I can state quite categorically that there was never any intention by me or any of my staff to do anything other than what was in the interest of the consumer and the health of the community and everything we did was open and above board." It was based on the unanimous advice of scientists and support of the Council of Ministers.
MEPs are concerned that the Commission's handling of the issue may have reflected too much concern for the beef market and too little for the consumer. The inquiry is likely, sources say, to recommend that responsibility for animal and food health matters be taken away from the farm directorate and given to consumer affairs.
Mr MacSharry, a former Fianna Fail Minister for Finance and Agriculture, was Commissioner from 1989 to 1993 and was widely praised for his success in carrying through a major reform of the Common Agriculture Policy in the face of protests from farmers throughout Europe.
Since his time in Brussels he has been a member of the board of Bank of Ireland, Jefferson Smurfit, Green Property, and Ryanair, of which he was chairman for three years. He is also on the boards of a Cork deer producing company and poultry exporting company in Roscommon. He is chairman of London City Airport.
