Courts to decide fate of EU supplements directive
The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is set to challenge the validity of the European directive on food supplements by taking the EU executive to court over senseless restrictions to consumer availability of natural supplements with a nutritional value. A top law firm has been retained by ANH to see the legal challenge through the EU courts and the word is, that it might well work.
The EU has decided to harmonise the internal market in these supplements, claiming its new regulations are essential for consumer protection. Obviously the consumer protection issue is a red herring, because no such action is envisioned to make pharmaceutical medicines safer or to regulate normal foods, which both cause higher casualties than supplements by orders of magnitude.
ANH is asking for consumers, practitioners and companies who use and provide leading-edge nutritional supplements to chip in with donations towards this important legal action. Read what they have to say.
Top EU lawyers give ANH challenge 'green light'
The only EU lawyers to have overturned an EU Directive have released their opinion which states there are grounds for a legal challenge of the EU Food Supplements Directive. Find out why immediate action is needed!
The ANH's London-based EU barristers are now at an advanced stage of preparation for a legal challenge of the EU Food Supplements Directive.
ANH is calling on all companies, practitioners, retailers and consumers to join their campaign and help provide the funding needed to see the landmark case through the UK and European courts.
The initial phase of the Food Supplements Directive is the thin end of the wedge in terms of its impact on the innovative sector of the food supplement industry. If unchallenged, bans for non-compliant products will commence on 1 August 2005, and this is likely to include many food form nutrients.
Dr Robert Verkerk, Executive Director of ANH says "it makes no sense to limit the availability of safe, bioavailable food forms of nutrients simply because there is a lack of safety data on these forms. The evidence for their safety is their proven track record in foods, and for this reason, manufacturers have not considered it necessary to carry out onerous safety studies, which often involve experimental animals. Food supplements are many times safer than foods, yet food manufacturers are not being asked to submit safety data on natural foods like fruits, nuts and vegetables".
ANH is concerned that subsequent phases of the Food Supplements Directive, namely restrictions on maximum dosages and on nutrients other than vitamins and minerals (e.g. amino acids, fatty acids, phytonutrients, enzymes, antioxidants, probiotics, fibre) will together very severely impact innovative suppliers, and their beneficiaries.
The barristers engaged by ANH are leaders at the British Bar with enormous experience and expertise in EU law. The key lawyer retained by ANH has appeared in over 70 cases before the European Court of Justice, is a visiting Professor of Law at Kings College University of London, the author of the leading Practitioners' textbook on References to the European Court of Justice and, with his co-barrister (also retained by ANH), conducted the first ever successful challenge to the validity of an EU Directive. In so doing, these barristers were required to pioneer the legal procedure to enable trade associations and companies to challenge the validity of a Directive as, until then, this could only be done by State governments and EU Institutions.
However, time is of the essence. ANH, its barristers and experts are working on a very tight schedule as the case needs to be prepared and filed within the next few weeks.
The ANH is very grateful to the support it has gained from its rapidly expanding support base of innovative companies, practitioners, consumers and retailers, not only in Europe, but around the world. It is making continuous appeals for further support to assist in the forthcoming stages of the proposed legal action.
Cheques (made payable to 'Alliance for Natural Health') can be sent directly to the ANH registered office:
Alliance for Natural Health
Mount Manor House
16 The Mount
Guildford
Surrey GU2 4HS
United KingdomAlternatively, credit card donations can be made directly via the ANH website (www.anhcampaign.org). Support for the ANH campaign has been increasing at a very rapid rate, and the ANH website is now one of the leading health freedom campaign websites worldwide (based on data over 3 months, the site is presently ranked as the top 127,865 website in the world, a growth rate of 13,200%; according to Alexa statistics.
Please communicate this as widely as possible and contact info@alliance-natural-health.org to receive your companies' or practitioners' ANH campaign e-pack.
posted by Robin Good on Friday August 8 2003
updated on Tuesday July 29 2008URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/08/08/courts_to_decide_fate_of_eu_supplements_directive.htm
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