Prodi pledges to end French ban on British beef

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Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, pledged his full backing yesterday for moves to force France to re-admit British beef. The promise followed a meeting with Tony Blair in Barcelona.

Although the European Court of Justice has ruled against France's refusal to lift the beef embargo, the government in Paris has said there will be no change in the position during the next three months.

At a breakfast meeting at the EU summit yesterday, Mr Blair won the support of Mr Prodi, who said the European Commission would seek to enforce the court's ruling. Mr Prodi was "determined that European law is upheld as quickly as possible", a Downing Street spokesman said. Jonathan Faull, a spokesman for Mr Prodi, said the Commission "will obviously insist on compliance. The EU is based on the rule of law and if it is ignored we are all in trouble."

Although Mr Blair held a brief conversation with Jacques Chirac, the French President, the subject was not raised. The Prime Minister said he would take up the issue in later meetings with Lionel Jospin, the French Prime Minister.

The original case against the French was taken by the Commission, which sees itself as the guardian of EU law and which had ruled that British beef was safe to import.

Officials in Brussels say they expect the Commission to send a warning letter to the authorities in France shortly. If the government in Paris still refuses to comply, there will be a second letter, or reasoned opinion, before the case goes back to the court in Luxembourg.

That process could take 18 months, but the French would then face massive daily fines if they failed to comply.

Most diplomats believe that, once the French presidential and parliamentary elections are over, the French authorities will lift the ban.

Officials say that, by specifying that the embargo will stay for a three-month period, Paris has departed from its earlier determination to oppose for an indefinite period the opening of its markets to British beef.

In reality, the argument is, in the short term anyway, largely academic. Britain has only two slaughterhouses licensed to export meat and they must comply with strict conditions. At present, because the rules were changed after the foot-and-mouth outbreak last year, neither of the slaughterhouses is taking part in the scheme and thus no British beef is being exported.