Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-12-Speech-2-306"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2002-03-12"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Food supplements2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20020312.12.2-306"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2002-03-12-Speech-2-3072
lpv:speaker	lp:Phillip Whitehead2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, it is not every day we have to congratulate a rapporteur for sheer civil courage in standing up to one of the most unscrupulous lobbies of our time. I do not believe that I have seen anything like it before. Like most of us, she has been accused of being a stooge of the pharmaceutical industry, of being ignorant and insensitive. We should say to those who made these accusations that we cannot be bought in this House and that we cannot be bullied either. We owe our constituents our judgement, and mine is that for all its flaws and deficiencies, the directive is one that should be commended, with amendments, to those many people who are frightened and nervous, who depend on these food supplements to preserve their health, and some of whom even believe it is a matter of life or death. They fear this directive because they have been told that these products will be banned, that testing will be prohibitive, and that what remains will be swallowed up in a restrictive and prescriptive regime. We owe it to them to make certain that is not the case, and shallow populist rhetoric is not the way to do it. We need to make certain that small producers can come forward and be reassured that it will not be a costly and prohibitive process. Time after time, we see that this is ignored in directives. It has been ignored in the PPP directive. The people who have the greatest need of our protection now are the small producers and we should help them. They should be able to register their product for simple and cost-effective evaluation. It should be a positive list which is rapidly expanded, with maximum dosages linked to real needs and not to outmoded daily allowances. People such as Mr Davies have said: 'well, we have not done this for alcohol'. My God, we have tried! We know what lobby it is that stops us doing this on alcohol, which stops us having the labelling that is necessary. Two wrongs do not make a right. We have to look at this directive in terms of the way in which it will be interpreted. The more people make claims about their health, the more we see that this needs a safety evaluation. You cannot have the one without the other. If you make the claims, you must expect to see them tested, but they should be tested fairly, simply and in a cost-effective way to leave a regime of light-touch and user-friendly practices. That is what my country has had and I believe we can keep it. It is also possible to fit that in to the framework of this directive."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	member; PES (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Delegation to the EU-Czech Republic Joint Parliamentary Committee (2002-02-07--2004-04-30)3 member; Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 unknown; Labour Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Temporary committee on foot and mouth disease (2002-01-17--2002-12-17)3 substitute; Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 substitute; Committee on Development and Cooperation (2002-01-17--2002-09-23)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"(Applause from the left)"1 "Whitehead (PSE )."1

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