Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-18-Speech-1-089"
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"en.20021118.5.1-089"2
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"Mr President, it is a fact that tobacco advertising encourages young people to take up smoking and stops people who already smoke from giving up. Customer relations of this kind do, however, take their toll. Given the harmful effects smoking has on health, including for non-smokers due to passive smoking, our group is in favour of a total ban on advertising for tobacco products. These products are dangerous and can, upon lighting up and inhalation, cause serious diseases which can even prove fatal. We are therefore very disappointed with the Commission's new proposal. Although we realise that, given the judgment by the Court of Justice, the Commission's options are very limited, this proposal largely overshoots its goal, namely to protect public health. I shall thus reluctantly endorse the Commission proposal without any further amendments. This is at present the most viable option in the fight against tobacco advertising. Six months ago, we in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy held an extensive discussion on this topic. It is therefore beyond me why the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market should still be tabling all kinds of amendments which will ultimately frustrate the coming into being of this legislation. If these amendments are adopted, the chances are that the Court will once again declare the directive invalid. I should, however, like to urge the European Commission to continue its search for ways of reducing the use of tobacco, particularly where young people are concerned.
It is incomprehensible that we should remove all kinds of less dangerous products from the market, but not tobacco. Once again, the use of tobacco is a euphemism for the injudicious incineration of dangerous carcinogenic substances. If this involved other products, we would have banned them a long time ago. I cannot imagine that we would bring toys into circulation which claim 5 million victims annually. Or that we would accept other products in food which result in 5 million deaths annually, but we do turn a blind eye where tobacco products are concerned. This is an example of extreme inconsistency. This is nothing to do with the precautionary principle. We know that smoking has harmful effects such as these, and this is why we should simply introduce a complete ban on this advertising."@en1
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