Public health: integration of health protection requirements in Community policies. 2nd report 1995

Aid for tobacco growing in Europe should be abandoned within 10 years, the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection Committee recommended. Adopting a non-legislative report by Mrs Marilies FLEMMING (EPP, A) on a Commission report regarding the integration of health protection in Community policies, the committee also called for a radical reform of the existing aid system "taking account in particular of the proven damaging effects of tobacco consumption on health". The committee welcomed many aspects of the Commission report but complained that Commission statements on the internal market and on agriculture and food were "confined to incomplete generalizations". It called on the Commission to press ahead with the integration of health protection requirements in European food law. Other committee demands included continuation of the ban on the use of hormones to fatten animals, the subjection of imported foodstuffs to the same health requirements as Community products, greater freedom of movement for the medical profession, a strengthening of patients' rights and stringent liability laws in the nuclear industry. The Commission representative said his institution would take all of Parliament's remarks into account. On tobacco in particular, Commissioner Flynn was putting all his weight behind reform. Hopefully, future developments would be in line with what Parliament and particularly the Environment Committee had been trying for years to bring about.