Monitor

IT'S BACK. The banished beef has returned. But it won't receive a warm welcome here, despite all of London's efforts. The English are crying victory, rightly so. Not because they've definitively stamped out a dreadful disease, but because they have, over a period of months, forced their policy to such an extent that the embargo, even though limited, has now been lifted. But this partial lifting is really only theoretical, considering the severe conditions imposed on the manufacture of gelatine and the little continental demand for products which are, after all, still suspect. Will Tony Blair's meat have more success than Major's gelatine? It doesn't really matter as we hardly imported any British meat before the embargo and there is nothing to suggest that in the meantime the Belgian appetite for British roast beef has been whetted.

Le Soir, Belgium

THE BRITISH argument that the European Union, in its fight against BSE, practised double standards, is not without justification. For while a strict export ban has been in place in Britain since 1996, other countries afflicted with BSE - Belgium is the most recent example - got away with it. The European Union is a long way from guaranteeing the safety of consumers. It would seem that Mad Cow Disease is not just a British problem, but a problem that concerns all of Europe .

Suddeutsche Zeitung, Germany

THE EXTREME complexity of the European Union's decision-making mechanism really reaches its fullest expression in a case like this. But, Britain's euphoria on Tuesday could not hide the darker chapters of the story of the nation's response to the disease. Sir Kenneth Calman, English Chief Medical Officer under the Conservative government, who held his post until a little over a month ago, has recently admitted that contaminated animal feed was still being sold six years after it was banned. And that's before we even touch on the subject of hygiene levels in slaughterhouses.

El Pais, Spain