The Council acknowledged a note from the French delegation
calling on the Commission to investigate possible additional measures that
the EU should adopt in order to prevent and monitor bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE). This mainly concerned the implementation of a
continuous surveillance system for transmissible BSE, together with the
exclusion from the human and animal food chain of tissue likely to contain
the pathogenic agent. The UK
delegation expressed its support for this approach. Commissioner FISCHLER
pointed out that the Commission had submitted the French delegation’s
recommendations to the opinion of the Veterinary Scientific Committee and to
the recently appointed Multidisciplinary Scientific Committee, the aim being
to examine all the technical measures needed to reassure consumers of beef
and other meats and to protect their health in an efficient manner, using
scientific data as a basis. It was important to initiate a Community approach
based on several technical procedures, while at the same time avoiding
isolated national measures. At the end of its deliberations the Council took
note of the general direction that the Commission would be taking on this
matter and called on the latter to present the authorities concerned with all
the additional measures that the Scientific Committees would judge necessary
in order to prevent any risk of BSE transmission.