Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-24-Speech-3-391"
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"en.20080924.34.3-391"2
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"Mr President, this is a long report. There were 400 amendments, and I would like to thank the rapporteur because he has tried to make some sense of it. I hope the key messages will not be lost because it is so long.
For us in the Socialist Group the key messages – and there are some very positive points here – are that we need good food-labelling regulation and we want to see front-of-pack labelling, if possible using colour coding, included in the forthcoming discussions. We know the Commission is looking at this and that is what we want to see.
We are pleased that there is now support across the Parliament for a ban on artificial trans-fatty acids. When I first raised this two years ago there was no support in the Parliament – in fact the Commission was taking Denmark to court and there was nothing happening. We have now had a written declaration and we have a consensus, so I hope the Commission will do something like this.
Commissioner, you spoke about product reformulation. I think this is crucial. It is true what Philip Bushill-Matthews says that obviously people have to take some responsibility, but manufacturers have a responsibility in terms of how they make products. Many of them are now making great efforts to cut salt, fat and sugar. Often these things are hidden in foods. It is not obvious to consumers when they buy ketchup or yoghurt that they contain lots of sugar. In fact the labelling system often disguises what is in the product, such as yoghurts which are labelled ‘low fat’ when they have very high levels of sugar.
We do not believe that self-regulation is the answer to everything. We think there has to be a degree of regulation, in particular in relation to children. Yes, adults can make choices but children need to be protected by the law and that is why we want to see independent monitoring of any voluntary agreements by industry. We know that you are taking the first steps in this direction.
Finally, this is a huge issue for Europe. It is going to cost the public purse a lot of money if we do not tackle it and we now need some concrete proposals to come from the Commission – not on issues which are to do with national responsibility, but in those areas where the EU has responsibility we need clear policies which help national governments to reduce obesity."@en1
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