Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-20-Speech-3-321"
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"en.20021120.10.3-321"2
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"Mr President, I welcome this directive and Mr Nisticò's elegant improvement of its direction. We have had our arguments – indeed, we have had some today – but not about this.
Herbal remedies are bought and trusted by millions and by many of us here. Their use goes back over millennia. This directive allows the basic registration of traditional remedies. It should be generous in its interpretation of how and where this traditional use established the safety requirements that are necessary. Equally, the use of these products in combination with others, including drugs, requires scrupulous attention to the possible side-effects where they may occur.
This basic safety requirement is a modest proposal indeed. Professional herbal practice associations and consumer groups support it across Europe. All it requires is that we know about quality and content. The better the product, the more the maker should welcome this directive. What is in it? What will it do for me? These are questions asked by consumers, which you would indeed ask of anything you took – even a wine gum.
The fact is that we are here now facing a very simple process and yet there are petitions, paranoid talk of plots and industrial lobbies mimicking consumer concerns. What do they fear? The European Medical Control Agency has estimated that in the UK, for example, out of 207 notified substances, all but 2 or 3 would sail through the process of registration without the expensive proof required for chemicals. I would ask this industrial lobby, which has embarrassed many herbalists, are your own products so safe and legal? Or could they too be adulterated, irradiated or substituted? How many tests have been conducted on side-effects? How many off-the-shelf shops offer expert advice? When the Consumers' Association in Britain tested this out on a random sample of 30, only 5 were able to offer knowledge in terms of the recommendations they made.
This is an opportunity to blend tradition and the modern rediscovery of ancient skills. It gives the consumer a wider choice and offers expansion for the quality producer. Let us welcome it."@en1
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