Victory for UK: beef gets clean bill of health

Britain scored a decisive victory in the Anglo-French beef war last night when EU scientists surpassed all expectations and unanimously rejected France's claim that British beef is unsafe.

Britain scored a decisive victory in the Anglo-French beef war last night when EU scientists surpassed all expectations and unanimously rejected France's claim that British beef is unsafe.

The result puts massive political pressure on the French government to back down and remove its illegal blockade of British beef exports. The ruling came after a month of phoney war rhetoric over food which has soured cross-Channel relations and threatened to spread into an all-out trade war involving consumer boycotts across Britain and a short-lived port blockade in France.

A relieved and delighted Tony Blair greeted the news as a vindication of his refusal to give in to the frenzy of anti-European and anti-French feeling which the Conservatives had sought to whip up in recent days. "It is possible to win for Britain in Europe," Mr Blair declared.

"We said throughout we had law on our side, science on our side. We have done this by playing by the rules but putting our case calmly but forcefully.

"We will now keep up the work to make sure the decision is implemented and continue to help our farmers to recover from the disaster of BSE," he said.

The 16-member Scientific Steering Committee ruled after two days of intense scrutiny that there was "no justification" for the continuing French ban. The European Commission immediately warned Paris to "take stock ... and lift their national restrictions on imports of British beef".

But the Commission also hinted heavily last night that it expects the Britain to come forward with new proposals on beef labelling to reassure French consumers. A new system of testing for mad cow disease is also being planned by Brussels.

The EU's Health Commissioner, David Byrne, who presented the findings, called on Paris and Germany - which has also not lifted its ban - to remove their restrictions: "Those restrictions are no longer necessary in the light of the safeguards in place."

France justified its ban on beef exports with a 600-page presentation of alleged "new evidence" on the dangers of British beef. This was comprehensively rejected yesterday and Paris is now certain to be threatened with prosecution in the European court if it fails to lift its embargo. The French government said last night that there would be no official reaction until it had fully digested the scientific committee's findings.

The committee, which was made up of independent food safety experts from across Europe, said that providing Britain continues to respect the tight health conditions already imposed on exports, its meat "is comparable to these foods coming from elsewhere in the EU". It was adamant that "there are no grounds for revising" the EU's decision in August to lift the ban on British beef.

The scientists concluded that "it is clear that the decline of the [British BSE] epidemic continues in line with scientific expectations." The findings were fully endorsed by the committee's French chairman, Gérard Pascal.

But a rapid end to the crisis now rests with the independent French food safety agency, which objected to the lifting of the beef ban in the first place. Politically - although not legally - the French government cannot respond until it had asked the agency to examine the committee's reasoning.

If the French agency is prepared to accept Britain's assurances and the unanimous conclusions of the EU scientists, the crisis could be over rapidly.

If the agency refuses to back down, the French government will almost certainly allow itself to be taken to the European Court and will fight its case there.

The Minister of Agriculture, Nick Brown, warmly welcomed the committee's findings and said they "clearly vindicated" the position taken by the British Government that British beef exports are safe.

Tim Yeo, the Tory agriculture spokesman, said the result was "a great victory for British farming", but cautioned that the French had yet to act on the EU's ruling.

David Byrne, the EU food safety commissioner, said that the message for France was clear. "I believe the French and German authorities should take stock of the committee's opinion and lift their national restrictions on imports of British beef."