UK: Petition Against EU Supplements Ban
CategoriesAn internet-based campaign collecting signatures to "Save Our Supplements" from EU-directed extinction is being launched in the UK, backed by actress Jenny Seagrove and Carole Caplin.
The target is one million e-signatures as the next stage of the Save Our Supplements campaign. The petition can be signed on line here. What is needed are British signatures only. They can be from Brits living anywhere in Europe - but not elsewhere.
BBC has an article on the campaign.
Actress bids to keep health pills
Actress Jenny Seagrove is spearheading a Conservative campaign to keep hundreds of vitamins and food supplements on the shelves in Britain.The Tories say health remedies that have been used safely for years will disappear because of an EU Directive.
As part of their bid to save the supplements, Woman of Substance star Miss Seagrove is launching a petition to urge ministers to stop the EU ban.
The Tories claim this could be the last chance to change the EU legislation.
Health shop launch
The EU directive, to be enforced on 1 August 2005, is designed to harmonise the rules on vitamins and food supplements across the European Union.
It includes a list of vitamins and minerals which can be used in food supplements. It also includes upper limits on certain vitamins.
Groups opposed to the move say it will lead to many supplements disappearing off the shelves in Britain.
At lunchtime on Tuesday, stage and screen star Miss Seagrove will launch the nationwide e-petition at a health food shop in West London.
The petition, which can be found on the Conservative Party website, calls on ministers "to stop the EU from banning our vitamin and mineral supplements".
'Furious'
It also urges the government "to take action to secure a better deal for all British consumers of vitamin and mineral products".
Shadow health secretary Tim Yeo said he was delighted Miss Seagrove and the group Consumers for Health Choice were supporting the campaign.
"Labour let down millions of vitamins and food supplements' users when they passed the European Food Supplements Directive last year," he said.
"When people discover that Labour is continuing to let them down, as they are not taking an active part in discussions over the details of the directive in Brussels, they will rightly be furious.
"This may be our last chance to change this unnecessary and damaging EU legislation.
"We hope that people will sign our e-petition and join us in our fight. With the public's help, we will do everything we can to force ministers to preserve access to these products on behalf of British consumers."
'Unlawful'
Earlier this year, opponents to the new EU rules on vitamins and food supplements won their fight to take the matter to the European Court of Justice.
The High Court in London ruled in January that their case could be referred to judges in Luxembourg.
Mr Justice Richards had been asked to refer the directive to the European Court on the grounds that it was unlawful and would unfairly affect millions of people, threatening both health and trade.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Tuesday April 6 2004
updated on Saturday September 24 2005URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/04/06/uk_petition_against_eu_supplements_ban.htm
Related ArticlesEuropean Supplements Directive challenged in London Court
The European Union's Directive on Food Supplements, which became EU law last year and is now being transposed into the legal systems of EU member states, has been challenged in a UK court on Monday 13 October by the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) a pan-European coalition of supplement manufacturers, retailers, independent health practitioners and consumers. The case, filed in the London High Court by Brick Court Chambers and the... [read more]
October 16, 2003 - Sepp HasslbergerSupplements case to go to European Court
LONDON 30 January 2004 - The London High Court ruled today that the case against the European food supplements directive may be referred to the European Court of Justice. Mr Justice Richards ruled that there is "an arguable case" and that reference [of the the matter] to the EU Court of Justice "is plainly appropriate and should be made as soon as possible". "This is an important breakthrough in our... [read more]
January 30, 2004 - Sepp HasslbergerFoods Are Medicines: The Elusive Borderline
" Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food." Hippocrates (460-377 BC) We might say that the debate of what is food and what is medicine goes back more than two thousand years, to Hippocrates, the Greek physician who is also known as the father of modern scientific medicine. In the early 1960s, pharmaceutical medicines were in the headlines with a tragic development. Mothers who had... [read more]
September 28, 2004 - Sepp HasslbergerCodex Alimentarius – A threat to your vitamin supplements?
Codex Alimentarius is an international standard-setting body dealing with how to safely process and store food products, avoiding hazards to our health. For about ten years, the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses has been mulling over a guideline for vitamin and mineral supplements, originally proposed by the German delegation to this committee, presumably to eliminate dangers from these additions of vital nutrients to our nutrition.... [read more]
March 22, 2004 - Sepp HasslbergerFood Supplements: European Court To Hear Anti-Prohibition Case In January
The European Court of Justice has set 25 January 2005 as the date for hearing a case challenging the new European Directive on Food Supplements. The EU supplement law's prohibition clause will go into effect in July 2005, taking off the market many supplements consumers are now buying, unless the directive is overturned or substantially modified. The case was referred to the EU court by judge Richards of the London... [read more]
December 09, 2004 - Sepp HasslbergerSupplements: EU Court Hears Case As UK Commons Debate Directive
Luxembourg - The European Court of Justice heard oral arguments yesterday in a case brought by the Alliance for Natural Health, the British Health Food Manufacturers Association and the National Association of Health Food Stores, to overturn the prohibitive provisions of the European food supplements directive. The directive, passed in 2002 for the purpose of harmonizing European laws on health products, is set to require expensive research to prove the... [read more]
January 26, 2005 - Sepp Hasslberger