Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-18-Speech-2-085"
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"en.20081118.5.2-085"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Fischer-Boel, Minister Barnier, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission has tabled an extremely constructive proposal for setting up a school fruit scheme in order to reverse the unfortunate trend of increased obesity amongst European schoolchildren. It is a proposal that I warmly welcome. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that children eat 400 g of fruit and vegetables per day. Unfortunately, there are very few children who do this. In the EU, 22 million children are overweight and approximately 5 million children are severely overweight. The worst thing about this is that the number is rising by 400 000 children each year. An increased intake of fruit and vegetables reduces the risk of a large number of diseases and prevents overweight and severe overweight. Eating habits are established in childhood and the indications are that children who learn to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables continue to do so as adults. It is therefore vital that we intervene at an early stage if we are to succeed in influencing our children’s eating habits.
Excessive weight entails a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and certain forms of cancer. These diseases constitute an ever increasing threat to public health in the EU, and the cost of treatment weighs heavily on Member States’ health budgets. The Commission refers to its impact assessment, in which two studies were carried out which shed light on the link between health expenditure and too low an intake of fruit and vegetables. Expenditure on a school fruit scheme should be viewed in this light, and therefore the scheme will represent an actual saving in the Member States’ health budgets. Thus, it will, overall, have a positive effect, first and foremost on public health, but also on the European economy. Until we have achieved the objective of getting children to eat 400 g of fruit per day, it will be the case that the more fruit that children eat the greater the savings. Thus, prevention is cheaper than cure.
As rapporteur, I have proposed that we quadruple the amount that is intended to be appropriated in the Community budget. The Commission’s original proposal of EUR 90 million would, unfortunately, only stretch to a single piece of fruit once a week for 30 weeks for children aged six to ten years. This is far from enough if the scheme is to have any appreciable effect on children’s eating habits. One piece of fruit one day a week is not sufficient to change eating habits or to have an effect on public health. The optimum solution would be for all children to receive one piece of fruit every school day. It is therefore necessary to mobilise more funds in the Community budget.
A majority in the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development agreed to mobilise EUR 500 million and dispense with the national cofinancing. I do not agree with this. I hope therefore that in the vote today we can sort this matter out, as I have retabled a proposal on behalf of my Group to the effect that we should mobilise EUR 360 million. This should be supplemented by the Member States’ contribution and therefore will, overall, provide a far higher amount than the EUR 500 million.
A majority in the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development also agreed that only fruit and vegetables from EU countries should be distributed under the scheme. This, for me, is far too protectionist, and will also make the scheme very bureaucratic. It must therefore be the Member States which decide – from the list compiled by the Commission – which fruit can be distributed and which fruit will be included in the scheme."@en1
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