Compensation offer doesn't cut mustard

The European Union responded to fury over its handling of the E. coli outbreak yesterday by proposing €150 million ($270 million) in aid for thousands of farmers forced to destroy crops in a forlorn attempt to curb the epidemic.

The offer came during an emergency meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Luxembourg which descended into farce as the Spanish delegate took to brandishing a cucumber to underline the plight of his country's farmers.

Ministers scoffed at Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos's offer of €150 million, saying their farmers are seeing losses up to €417 million a week. Ciolos promised to come up with a higher offer within days.

Spain, the country hardest hit economically by the crisis other than Germany, is estimated to have been losing about €225 million a week in exports since Berlin mistakenly claimed last month to have found the pathogen causing the outbreak in Spanish cucumbers.

The warnings brought exports of most Spanish vegetables to a standstill, caused the EU to issue its own warning and prompted Russia to ban the import of all EU vegetables.

Spain's Francisco Sosa-Wagner lambasted Germany for "rushing in without due caution" to sully the reputation of his country's produce. He blamed the European Commission for providing "no co-ordination and no leadership" over the crisis and demanded a review of Europe's food safety alert system.

"We have to restore the honour of the cucumber," Sosa-Wagner said.

"We have told Germany that it must reimburse us for the loss. If it covers 100 per cent, which is what we are demanding, the affair will be closed. Otherwise we reserve the right to take legal action," he insisted. France also demanded "100 per cent compensation" for its farmers.

Germany was also targeted by John Dalli, the EU Health Commissioner, who accused Angela Merkel's Government and health authorities of overreacting. "It's crucial that national authorities don't rush to give information on the source of the infection when it's not justified by science," he said.

In Germany, there was no sign that health investigators were any closer to identifying the source of the aggressive mutant strain of the E. coli bacteria.

Germany's national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, raised the death toll to 24 and the number of infections to 2325, with 642 victims in intensive care in hospital.

- Independent, AP