The Commission of the European Union has today [Wednesday] referred France to the European Court of Justice for a second time for its refusal to comply with its judgement on British beef.
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Under the EU-Treaty, a Member State is obliged to implement a judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). On 13 December 2001, the ECJ declared France’s refusal to lift its ban on British beef and bovine products complying with the DBES as unlawful. Thus, France was obliged to implement the relevant EU rules and to allow the resumption of imports of correctly marked or labelled British DBES beef and products to France.
Such implementation measures have still not been communicated to the European Commission by France. The EC has therefore decided to refer France to the ECJ for a second time, in order to enforce the judgement given by the Court.
The EC also decided to request the ECJ to impose a penalty payment of €158,250 (US$159,174) per day on France, should the case not be settled before the judgment of the Court. The penalty would apply to each day of non-compliance with the second judgment of the Court. The Court is not bound to accept the amount proposed by the Commission.
The Commission will also request that the ECJ treat this case by accelerated procedure – a decision the President of the Court has to take. This will see the punishment imposed as soon as possible.
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By GlobalDataThe EC has used such powers before – successfully fining Greece nearly 13,000 a day for failing to comply with waste management laws, reports PA News.
UK farmers themselves estimate annual beef export losses at about 300 million, and, via the National Farmers’ Union, are seeking compensation in the European Court. It had been hoped that the French attitude to the ban would change with the arrival of a new government elected last month, but the new regime shows no sign of complying with the earlier ECJ judgement.
While France says it still believes British beef is dangerous, every other EU Member State lifted the ban in 1999, when the organisation’s scientific committee – headed by a Frenchman – declared British beef safe.
