EU FOOD SUPPLEMENT BAN STILL A TICKING TIME BOMB

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IMPORTANT: EU FOOD SUPPLEMENT BAN STILL A TICKING TIME BOMB

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 12:17:42 -0000

 

 

 

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

- For immediate release -

 

EU FOOD SUPPLEMENT BAN STILL A TICKING TIME BOMB

Alliance for Natural Health keeps the ball rolling in landmark lawsuit

 

The Alliance for Natural Health, the not-for-profit campaign

organisation that pioneered a landmark legal action against a proposed

EU ban on thousands of food supplements, has informed the UK

government and High Court in London of its intention to continue its

legal action.

 

Widespread publicity following the European Court of Justice (ECJ)

judgment, handed down on 12th July 2005, implied that all had been

lost since the Food Supplements Directive, the target of the

challenge, had been upheld.

 

The ECJ ruling came as a surprise to many given an opinion issued in

April 2005 by a senior advisor to the Court, Advocate General Leendert

Geelhoed. Geelhoed had referred to the Food Supplements Directive " as

transparent as a black box " and proposed that it contravened basic

principles of European Community law and so was invalid under EU law.

 

The ANH has argued from the outset that the Court, in its judgment,

has actually delivered a solution that takes into account the main

concerns raised in its legal challenge, yet allows the Directive to be

upheld. This approach has two major benefits over invalidating the

Directive: it avoids the need to re-negotiate a new Directive, whilst

it also allows the European institutions to save face.

 

Recently appointed Legal Director for the ANH, barrister Robert

Collins, says, " The ANH's legal challenge is not yet complete. We need

still to go back to the High Court in London where the challenge was

initiated. The ANH intends to show how the Statutory Instrument that

transposes the EU Directive into English and Welsh law is seriously

out of step with the European Court's judgment. "

 

Collins continues, " Recently we have had some very constructive

discussions with the UK's Food Standards Agency and we are hopeful

that we can work collaboratively with the government towards a solution. "

 

Collins apparently demonstrated to the Food Standards Agency some of

the key contradictions between the Statutory Instrument (the Food

Supplements Regulations 2003) and the Court's judgment. He showed, for

example, that the judgment clearly demonstrates that the Directive

does not apply to food supplements whose ingredients include plant

extracts and other nutrients for which their use remains under

national rules.

 

Says Collins, " We are hopeful that the British government, the party

with which we initiated the challenge, will work constructively with

us towards a solution. Our lead barrister, Paul Lasok QC at Monckton

Chambers, argues that there is now a statutory requirement to change

the national laws to bring them into line with the European Court

judgment. The UK government is in a strong position to take a lead on

this, and this will force similar changes in other EU member states.

Without these changes, the Directive will not serve its intended

purposes of harmonising laws across the EU and protecting consumers.

Many people in different countries are fed up with over-zealous EU

laws, and this is a landmark case which might help people to regain

respect and faith in European law. "

 

Dr Robert Verkerk, Executive & Scientific Director of the ANH adds,

" The European Food Supplements Directive, as it was originally

proposed, would have acted as a massive barrier to innovative,

food-form supplements. The ECJ ruling, once adopted into Member State

laws, opens the door to natural, food-form nutrients. Instead of

running frightened from this Directive, we need to see its potential

as a means to a permissive regime with key similarities to the regime

offered by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act 1994 in the

United States. "

 

Ends

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Dr Robert Verkerk, Executive & Scientific Director, Alliance for

Natural Health

Tel: +44 (0)1252 371 275

Email: info

Web: www.alliance-natural-health.org

 

Meleni Aldridge, Development Manager, Alliance for Natural Health

 

Tel: +44 (0)1252 371 275

Mobile: +44 (0)7771 750230

Email: mela

Web:: www.alliance-natural-health.org

 

Note: Both contacts are presently in the USA and are available for

interview.

 

Editor's Notes:

 

ALLIANCE FOR NATURAL HEALTH

 

1. The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is a Europe-wide and

international non-profit alliance of consumers, doctors, complementary

health practitioners, and innovative industry manufacturers and

suppliers with interests in food supplements and natural health. More

information, including details of the ANH's support base, will be

found at www.alliance-natural-health.org

 

2. Good science and good law underpin all of the ANH's work, and

the scientific reports produced by the ANH are endorsed by many of the

world's leading doctors and scientists working in the field of nutrition.

 

 

 

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