UK House of Lords votes against EU supplements directive
LONDON 1 July 2003 - The House of Lords, in a vote of 132 to 79, approverd a motion last night asking the Government not to transform the European Food Supplements Directive into UK law. While the motion, put forward by Earl Howe, is not binding, it sends a strong message to the Government to return to the negotiating table with the European Commission and Council to work out a solution that will allow UK consumers continued access to health supplements.
It is feared that the EU directive, passed in July 2002, will remove thousands of currently available nutritional products from the shelves of health food stores. Consumer groups, retailers and industry are concerned that the public's health choices will be sharply limited by the EU's attempt to regulate internal commerce of these products, as reported recently by The Times and BBC News.
"Of course this is not only a UK matter", comments Ivan Ingrilli, spokesman for La Leva di Archimede, a Rome based association campaigning for free choice in health. "Consumers in all European countries are facing the threat of losing access to important health supplements, both here in Italy and elsewhere, when governments start issuing national laws to implement the EU directive." The EU's rules require the directive to be transposed into national law by the end of July.
Paul Taylor from the UK reports on the vote and its implications.
London, 1 July 2003
We won the vote in the House of Lords last night. The motion was carried by 132 votes to 79.
Because the House of Lords motion (put forward by Earl Howe) was not an annulling motion, it will not prevent the Government from implementing the Statutory Instrument that will translate the Food Supplement Directive into UK law. What it will do however is send a strong signal to the Government. The Government are however at liberty to ignore the result of the Lords vote - which they probably will, at least for now.
The 16 members of the Standing Committee hold the real power on this issue, and will decide on Thursday 3rd July whether or not the UK implements the Statutory Instrument that will translate the Food Supplement Directive into UK law. If the Standing Committee vote to implement the legislation, which they probably will, we must file papers to implement the legal challenge by
mid August.The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) are preparing the legal challenge to the
Food Supplements Directive, and are engaged in raising the necessary funds to do this. Please consider making a donation at their website.
Consumers for Health Choice (CHC), a UK based consumer advocacy group calls the vote a humiliating defeat for the UK Government. The group says it has campaigned hard to induce the Government "to seek a better deal for the UK under the terms of the Food Supplements Directive".The story has also been carried on ITV as follows:
Lords reject vitamin law changes 23.36PM BST, 30 Jun 2003The Government was defeated when the Lords voted against proposed European Union curbs on sale of vitamins and mineral food supplements in the UK.
But the vote will not stop the Food Supplements Directive coming into force in August 2005.
Tory health spokesman Earl Howe's motion merely "called upon" ministers to revoke the implementing regulations.
The motion, carried by 132 to 79, a majority of 53, "regretted" the limited nature of the lists of permitted nutrients contained in the EU's Food Supplements Directive.
It called on ministers to revoke the Food Supplements (England) Regulations and to re-negotiate the Directive with the European Commission, to allow "safe and appropriately labelled" supplements to be marketed.
The motion urged simpler procedures for adding substances with a long history of safe use to the EU's permitted list and that maximum permitted levels of vitamins and minerals should be "based on sound science".
Junior health minister Lord Warner said: "The UK is obliged to implement the Directive.
"Failure to transpose its requirements properly would be a serious breach of our obligations under the EC Treaty and would result in infraction proceedings against the UK and in the likelihood of our facing heavy fines.
"Ultimately, implementation would be forced upon us."
Lord Warner cautioned: "Simply engaging in Brussels bashing on this Directive is not going to help British consumers and industry. The Directive has been agreed and we are obliged to implement it."
Earl Howe later told reporters:"This vote sends a powerful message to the Government that the Food Supplements Directive is unacceptable.
"The onus is now on ministers to protect British consumers by negotiating an amending Directive in Brussels to ensure that nutrients safely marketed in this country for many years remain legal."
The Tory move was backed by Liberal Democrat and crossbenchers.
Earl Howe said ministers "have let this country and its consumers down very badly." They had brushed aside any suggestion that the UK market for vitamins and mineral supplements would be severely affected.
"It is now abundantly clear that their assurances were hollow and that the manufacturers' fears were right all along."
Over 40 per cent of the public used such supplements and some 32 per cent took vitamins or other dietary supplements every day. They should be regulated purely on safety grounds, not for the sake of harmonising EU rules.
More than 300 nutrients or nutrient sources currently on the British market were not on the EU's permitted list. The directive would affect "thousands" of products currently on sale in the UK.
"These products will become illegal under this directive."
There were also proposals for maximum permitted dosages of the substances that were to be allowed. "That's the nanny state approach writ large," Earl Howe protested.
He added: "The Government have not done nearly enough to uphold our national interests. They have allowed the EU bandwagon to roll over us."
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Tuesday July 1 2003
updated on Thursday October 14 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/07/01/uk_house_of_lords_votes_against_eu_supplements_directive.htm
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