European Business News 96-08-05

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From: The European Business News Server at <http://www.ebn.co.uk/>

Page last updated August 5 8:10 CET

CONTENTS

[01] EU and Saxony 'Volkswagen' row intensifies

[02] Italy to set Stet sale plans by mid-August

[03] EU considers widening beef ban to cattle

[04] Canal + and Bertelsman reconsider ties

[01] EU and Saxony 'Volkswagen' row intensifies

[02] Italy to set Stet sale plans by mid-August

Meanwhile, Italian news agencies reported over the weekend that an meeting with ministers responsible for privatization issues is scheduled for Tuesday. Ministers are expected to address the issue of Stet's privatization, including the possibility that certain Stet businesses considered non-strategic could be sold off separately ahead of the sale.

Tuesday's interministerial meeting will be followed Wednesday by a board meeting of Stet's controlling shareholder, giant state holding company Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI). It is expected that the government will be able to provide IRI's board with directives on the time frame and the outline for the modality of a Stet sale.

[03] EU considers widening beef ban to cattle

The disease, which has been linked to a fatal brain ailment in humans, caused a public health scare in the spring and an EU ban on Britain's worldwide exports of beef. To end the ban, Britain must kill at least 120,000 cows deemed most at risk of mad cow disease, known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.

Cows contract BSE from feed containing ground-up brain and spinal cord tissue. Britain stopped using bone meal in 1988, but mad cow disease has an incubation period of at least 5 years. On Thursday, British scientists reported cows can pass BSE to their calves. That may lead to a widening of the slaughter program, an issue debated here by veterinary experts from all 15 EU nations.

Britain's Chief Veterinary officer Keith Meldrum briefed his EU counterparts on the new data from London. In London, British Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg said: 'We shall need to take stock of the practical implications (of the report's findings) in particular for the proposed selective cull of cattle...'

The report was released as the EU head office closed down for a month- long summer break. EU spokesman Jurgen Kubosch said he 'could not exclude the (British slaughter) plan would have to be revised (but) we'll have to take a little bit of time to have a reaction.'

[04] Canal + and Bertelsman reconsider ties

But after a meeting Wednesday night between Canal Plus Chairman Pierre Lescure and Michael Dornemann, the Bertelsmann board member in charge of electronic media, Canal Plus said on Thursday that the two companies are 'reconstructing' their ties.

Irritations in the alliance with Canal Plus first emerged when Bertelsmann merged its TV interests with Cie. Luxembourgeoise de Telediffusion SA. Now Bertelsmann and Canal Plus are assessing the fallout from Bertelsmann's agreement with Kirch.

'We're not irritated by the fact that Bertelsmann talked to Kirch, because everybody is talking to everybody,' said a spokeswoman for Canal Plus. In a group interview with German journalists Wednesday, Feffer said Canal Plus still plans to launch five entertainment channels on the German market, preferably as part of Kirch's digital package.

He said Canal Plus still needs a partner in the German pay- TV market. That could be Bertelsmann or Kirch, Feffer said. Bertelsmann is planning to launch a digital service, but a smaller one than Kirch's.

From the European Business News (EBN) Server at http://www.ebn.co.uk/

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