Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-13-Speech-2-092"
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"en.20000613.10.2-092"2
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"Mr President, I am satisfied that there is general consensus within the fifteen Member States that legislation governing the sale, presentation and advertising of tobacco products must be fundamentally changed. The protection of the general public health of the citizens of the Union, must be a central priority for all European Union legislators at any time. As a result of the Amsterdam Treaty we now have an equal say with the EU governments in the area of legislation on public health matters. Let us use it intelligently.
The issue of cigarette smoking and the damage which cigarettes do to the health of the citizens of the Union is a very serious public health matter indeed. For the most part I support the key amendments which were passed by the Committee on the Environment last month, in their call for the warnings on cigarette packets to be larger than proposed by the Commission. The warning about the public health risk of cigarette smoking should cover 40% of the front of every packet and 60% of the back of every cigarette packet sold within the Union. Labelling requirements in general should be stricter and include fuller health warnings and the list of ingredients should also be available on request. Descriptions such as low tar, mild and light must in future be banned. I support the elimination of such descriptions because they give the impression that smoking such cigarettes does not damage the health of individuals as badly as other cigarettes: this is clearly misleading. Such slick advertising by tobacco manufacturers must not be permitted.
The Committee on the Environment has also called for warnings to be printed only in black on a white background, so as to give such warnings more impact. The committee members also consider that general warnings such as smoking kills are inadequate and I agree with this analysis. Messages such as "Smoking kills half a million persons each year in the European Union", or "85% of lung cancers are caused by tobacco" should be the messages printed on cigarette boxes in the future."@en1
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