Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-18-Speech-1-082"
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"en.20021118.5.1-082"2
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"Mr President, our draftsperson, Mrs Μalliori, has been held up by fog at Strasbourg airport and has asked me, with your permission, to stand in for her.
Every second, someone dies as a direct result of smoking. This adds up to over 3 million victims a year worldwide, 500 000 of whom are European citizens. Forty-two per cent of the Community population smokes and they are starting younger and younger. Sixty per cent of smokers start smoking at 13 and 90% start before they are 18. The gender gap between smokers is narrowing, with an increase in the number of girls smoking and 500 000 babies are born prematurely and underweight because their mothers smoke. Children in homes in which both parents smoke run a 72% greater risk of respiratory diseases such as asthma.
These are just some of the reasons why legislators in the Member States of the European Union have felt compelled to restrict tobacco product advertising rights, in order to protect public interests in general and the health of European citizens and young people in particular.
The World Health Organisation framework convention currently being negotiated, which should be completed within the next few months, takes the same approach, stressing that a tobacco advertising and sponsorship ban is one of the most urgent political rules which needs to be applied internationally.
As the House knows, this Commission proposal replaces Directive 43, the directive which, albeit after ten years' negotiations, was finally passed by the European Parliament and adopted by the Council in 1998 but, unfortunately, annulled by the Court of Justice in October 2000. The purpose of the directive being debated today, eighteen months after the Commission submitted its proposal, is to approximate the various laws, regulations and administrative provisions adopted by the Member States, in order to remove obstacles to the internal market and safeguard the free movement of goods and services and this is in keeping with the rules set out in the directive.
The present directive, which takes account of current legislation in the Member States and the case law of the Court of Justice, adopts parts of the previous directive and bans advertising in printed media, on the Internet and on the radio, together with sponsorship of events with cross-border effects. It also bans the free distribution of tobacco products, but does not cover indirect advertising. However, unlike the previous directive, it is not based on the principle of a total ban on all forms of advertising and sponsorship. I should point out here, however, that the Commission has submitted this more restricted proposal, which takes account of the legal framework set by the Court of Justice, in tandem with a proposal for a recommendation containing the elements which, as I said, have been excluded from this directive.
Unfortunately, the Committee on Legal Affairs has adopted 25 amendments which could lead to further annulment by the Court of Justice and which restrict the scope of the directive still further. The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, on the other hand, agreed with my proposal not to submit any proposed amendments and voted unanimously in favour of the Commission proposal.
Ladies and gentlemen, our decision on Wednesday will have tremendous political implications because it concerns an issue on which the European Parliament and the Council have already expressed a view and taken a decision. I therefore call on you to vote against all the amendments by the Committee on Legal Affairs. This is the only way to guarantee a fast procedure and, more importantly, to ensure that we take a decisive, firm, legally tenable step towards a Community policy to control smoking. According to the scientific data available, this will promote high health standards, especially among the young, who are not just the main target group; they are the very future of Europe."@en1
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