January 31, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

MORE MONEY FOR EU PLAN TO STAMP OUT MAD COW DISEASE

LONDON, January 31, Graphic News: THE European Commission on Wednesday pledged close to one billion euros in fresh money to help deal with the mad cow disease crisis that has swept across Europe.

European Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer told a news conference she had presented a supplementary budget for 2001 that earmarked 971 million euros ($1.05bn) to help fund extra measures to combat bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)

The voluntary Òpurchase for destructionÓ scheme to slaughter up to two million cattle, at a cost of $571 million, offers farmers near-market prices in compensation. Seventy percent of the cost will be funded by the EU, while the rest will be paid for by member countries.

GermanyÕs consumer protection and farm ministry, keen to restore consumer confidence, said on Wednesday it would join the EUÕs plan and slaughter an estimated 400,000 cattle.

EU officials had already warned that the costs of containing the crisis were escalating as plunging meat sales threatened to cause new mountains of unwanted beef, all stored at the expense of the blocÕs 40 billion euro ($37 billion) annual farm budget.

In the UK -- the biggest mad cow hotspot -- more than 170,000 cattle have been diagnosed with BSE since 1986. A further 1,300 cases have been recorded throughout the rest of the EU and Switzerland.

Since the mid-1990s more than 80 people in Europe have died from new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- the human equivalent of BSE -- believed to have been contracted from eating infected beef.
/ENDS
Sources: Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Reuters, Associated Press