Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-07-09-Speech-1-071"
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"en.20070709.15.1-071"2
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"Mr President, I wish to thank the Commission and Commissioner Kyprianou for their constructive cooperation. I also wish to thank the German and Portuguese Presidencies and the Council of Ministers for their willingness to arrive at agreements concerning what are such important matters for many players and consumers. Furthermore, I should like to say a big thank you to the rapporteurs, Mrs Doyle and Mrs Drčar Murko, for the other reports in this package and to the shadow rapporteurs for my two reports. We have had many valuable meetings, and there has been a very constructive climate of cooperation. I therefore have high hopes that the continued discussions on these matters will take place in the same untroubled and constructive spirit.
I wish to begin by talking about the proposal for a regulation on food additives. On many occasions, additives really do have to be used in order, for example, to improve the shelf life or consistency of food. It is far from clear, however, how all these additives affect our health and the environment, and additives are sometimes used in order to mislead us, the consumers. I therefore wish to see EU legislation on food additives made more stringent, above all by tightening up the requirement that consumers should not be misled and by requiring that, when an additive is authorised, account be taken of how the environment and people with allergies will be affected.
Current legislation already contains requirements that consumers should not be misled in connection with the use of additives. All too often, however, consumers do find themselves misled. An example is the colouring agent used to deceive consumers into believing that a cheap yoghurt contains more fruit or berries than it actually does contain. The requirement that additives should not be used in a way that misleads consumers must therefore be made more stringent. The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety thought so as well, and I hope that Parliament too will support this position tomorrow.
What we eat does not stay in our own bodies but is dispersed into the environment. A start needs therefore to be made on factoring the environmental effects of additives in to the decision on whether or not they should be used. A clean environment should also be one of the objectives of the regulation. In order to clarify this further, the legal basis for food legislation should be changed so that it is clearly designed to improve public health and the environment and not only to promote freedom of movement for goods in the EU’s internal market.
The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety has supported a series of proposals about giving more consideration to the environment, and I hope that Parliament might do the same tomorrow.
Let me return now to the position of those with allergies. At present, all food containing allergy-inducing substances must be labelled as such. That is good, but it is not enough. Those with allergies and those who have an intolerance of certain substances must be able to eat the food sold in ordinary food shops and served in ordinary restaurants and not have to be directed towards specialist fare. The range of food available to those with allergies should not, therefore, be limited due to the approval, without very good reasons, of additives that cause them problems. The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety has partly supported my demands in this connection, and I hope that Parliament will take the opportunity tomorrow to do more to make matters easier for those with allergies by supporting my and others’ amendments calling for increased account to be taken specifically of those with allergies.
I should now like to say a few words about a group of colouring agents known as azo dyes. These were previously banned in Sweden because they can cause problems for people with allergies. A while ago the British newspaper
also drew attention to a still unpublished British study that again revives the quite frightening discussion about a possible connection between azo dyes and hyperactivity in children. I therefore support the demand that food containing azo dyes be specially labelled.
In conclusion, we must ask ourselves the following question: who is to take decisions about the content of our food in the future, and what decision-making process is to be adopted? I wish to call on all Members to vote against the amendments aimed at limiting consumers’ scrutiny of the approval process and instead to vote in favour of the amendments about increasing scrutiny and openness. The secretiveness surrounding our food is in danger of seriously damaging public confidence in both the EU and the food industry. When decisions are taken by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament together, the decision-making process is also more democratic and more transparent. With a committee procedure, the democratic ability to hold the relevant decision-makers to account is jeopardised, and serious limits are placed on scrutiny and the ability to influence decisions. What is more, cases have unfortunately occurred in which, in the course of decision-making within the framework of the committee procedure, powers have been exceeded and the framework arrived at jointly by Parliament and the Council has thus not been complied with. An example concerning the use of resources by way of aid was, in actual fact, drawn to the attention of the European Parliament this very week. My advice, therefore, is that Parliament should have the right of codecision on these issues, even if the new regulatory procedure involving supervision also has its advantages."@en1
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