Consumer, health and environment protection: recourse to the precautionary principle

The European Parliament adopted the text drafted by Mrs Béatrice PATRIE (PES, F) which aims to determine the factors triggering recourse to the precautionary principle. The Parliament wants clearer guidelines on the application of the principle, believing it should be invoked whenever a provisional objective scientific evaluation of the risks shows that there are justified fears of potentially dangerous effects on the environment or human, animal or plant health that are incompatible with a sufficiently high level of protection of the Community. Parliament's resolution covers not only the definition and scope of the precautionary principle but also risk assessment, risk management, risk communication and the burden of proof.�