Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-13-Speech-2-070"
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"en.20000613.8.2-070"2
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"Mr President, on the eve of the vote on this motion, I would like to focus on the problems raised by this directive and stress the responsibility we have had to display in order to iron them out. Since the fight against smoking, which is the main cause of death in the Union, is the leading element in the fight to uphold of the right to health, it is important to be aware that this fight can only be won through dynamic but realistic consideration of the implications for production and employment.
I would argue that the balance achieved between these two elements of the text adopted by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy makes up for the hard work of the last few months, and, in connection with this, I would like to thank the rapporteur, who joined us in taking a flexible approach to the matter and liasing openly with both the health associations and the producers of tobacco and tobacco products.
With regard, briefly, to the contents of the draft, I would stress that the Commission’s proposal has not only been adhered to but also further consolidated in terms of public health protection. Indeed, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy proposes to ban all terms such as light, ultralight or mild, since they are considered to be completely misleading for smokers, and eliminate any possibility of derogation for the States.
The Committee and my group have declared that they are in favour of harmonising the ingredients and additives of tobacco products, and have called upon the Commission to present a proposal for a list of authorised ingredients before the end of 2004. The rules governing warnings have also been consolidated: we were not content simply to increase the amount of space dedicated to warnings but the messages have been made clearer and more personal as well so that they will be more effective in dissuading consumers from smoking.
As I said before, this reinforced line of health protection could not have been sustained if we had not found common ground with the requests for gradual phasing-out put forward by the tobacco and tobacco-related production industry. The most problematic aspect of this directive may well be, in fact, that it lays down the same shorter time frames and the same maximum contents for all cigarettes produced in the Union, whether they are intended for sale within the Union or for export. Nobody wants to deny the principle that cigarettes are bad for Europeans as well as for the citizens of third countries, but you cannot ask an entire sector to change overnight.
In order to take into account the requirements of the tobacco producers and industry, we propose, in accordance with the outcome of the vote of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, to introduce a new amendment, Amendment No 98, to uphold the position which keeps the objective of converting the sector to another activity unchanged but grants slightly longer time periods for this to be implemented, through the application of maximum content levels for internal production as of 2004 and for export as of 2006. In this way, we do genuinely frustrate the attempts of those who, in the name of production, even reject the requirement to introduce maximum levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. And that is what counts.
Another delicate point is the granting of the derogation to Greece to allow it to continue to produce strong cigarettes up until 2006. In this context, having discussed the matter at great length in the Group, we considered that we should keep the situation as it is: that is, keep the derogation for Greece and refuse to extend it to nicotine and carbon monoxide.
Finally, I would like to mention that all the work put in during these last months has been carried out in close cooperation with the Council working party, and inform you that the Portuguese Presidency has placed the adoption of this directive high on the agenda of the ‘Health’ Council to take place on 29 June.
We are on the point of a major achievement – forgive me, Mr Langen – because in voting for the Maaten report and rejecting the amendments which challenge the validity of the legal basis of the directive, we have the chance to make our contribution to a more general anti-smoking strategy and, thus, to the improvement of our health."@en1
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