Re: ADVOCATE GENERAL FINDS FOOD SUPPLEMENTS DIRECTIVE INVALID UN

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The reason they give is that we are members of the World Trade Organization. Anita Advocate General recommends in favour of theANH landmark case!A FANTASTIC DAY FOR HEALTH FREEDOM!The European Court of Justice's Advocate GeneralGeelhoed has provided his opinion today. His opinionwas read out in the European Court in Luxembourg at08.30 h this morning.Please find our Press Release on the subject below.We wish to thank all of you who have contributed,financially and in other ways, to this landmarkchallenge that has the potential to rock the entireagenda on ever-tightening restrictions worldwide onnatural health.We will be giving you further updates in due course.PRESS RELEASEFor immediate release 5 April 2005ADVOCATE GENERAL FINDS FOOD SUPPLEMENTS DIRECTIVEINVALID UNDER EU LAW ALLIANCE FOR NATURAL HEALTH SET TO WIN ITS LANDMARKCHALLENGE TO THE EU FOOD SUPPLEMENTS DIRECTIVEThere was tremendous news today for the millions ofpeople in Europe who choose to use food supplementsFollowing a landmark challenge in the European Courtsof Justice (ECJ) brought by the Alliance for NaturalHealth and Nutri-Link Ltd to the contentious FoodSupplements Directive, which effectively proposed toban 75% of vitamin and mineral forms, Advocate GeneralGeelhoed, the senior adviser to the ECJ, gave hisOpinion in favour of the Alliances case.What does this mean? That the chances of consumersbeing able to continue using the natural foodsupplements they believe are beneficial to theirhealth are now greatly increased. There has beenuproar about the proposed EU ban, and maybe, againstthe odds, the consumer is going to come out on top inwhat is a remarkable modern day case of andGoliath.In a statement released in Luxembourg today at 0830GMT, the Advocate General concluded that:The Food Supplements Directive infringes the principleof proportionality because basic principles ofCommunity law, such as the requirements of legalprotection, of legal certainty and of soundadministration have not properly been taken intoaccount. It is therefore invalid under EU law.It should be stressed that the Advocate Generalspronouncement is not a ruling. That will come from theECJ judges, later - probably around June. Buttypically, in the vast majority of cases, the CourtJudgment follows the recommendations of the AdvocateGeneral.If the Advocate Generals recommendations are adopted,in effect, the ban on vitamin and mineral forms notincluded on the EUs Positive list, due to come intoeffect on 1 August 2005, will be declared illegal. Inessence, the positive list of allowable nutrient formswill be deemed to be too narrow, too restrictive, andbased on flawed science. This would avoid the totally irrational situationsthat the Food Supplements Directive would otherwisecreate. For example, synthetically produced seleniumwould have been allowed on the positive list, whilethe natural source found in Brazil nuts would not;synthetic forms of Vitamin E (often used in adversevitamin studies reported in the media) would beallowed, but the natural, most beneficial food formswould not.An outstanding moment for the Alliance for NaturalHealth The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is a Europe-wideprofessional organisation dedicated to ensuring thatgood science and good law are applied to regulationaffecting the leading edge of natural health. If theAdvocate Generals recommendations are endorsed by theECJ judges, it will represent the culmination of threeyears dogged determination, dedication and hard workon the part of ANH and its many supporters around theworld. It is commendable that the EU Advocate General hasseen through the flawed science and law of the FoodSupplements Directive and reached his recommendationstoday, said Dr. Verkerk, Executive Director ofthe ANH. All that ANH is campaigning and workingcooperatively for is the right for consumers to haveaccess to safe natural healthcare and for legislationto be based on good science and good law. This is agreat day for the tens of millions of people whobelieve passionately in the benefits of natural,preventative healthcare. C. Hinde, Solicitor and ANH Legal Director,added: This is a very significant Opinion in alandmark case. What we want to see in the EU is theFood Supplements Directive doing the job for which itwas created which is to provide a safe harbour forfood supplements so that they are not classified asdrugs, and to promote their availability across theEU. Advocate General Geelhoed is the most seniorAdvocate General at the ECJ and his consideredreasoning vindicates ANHs legal analysis andposition. We are very optimistic that the Court willadopt his recommendations.Supporting safe supplementsANH supports many aspects of the Directive, and firmlyendorses the banning of ingredients that are patentlynot safe, stating that existing UK and EU food lawalready provides perfectly effective protection fromunsafe products getting onto the market. Furthermore,ANH says that it is not scientifically rational toclassify an ingredient as being unsafe without takingdosage levels into account, something that was not acondition of being admitted onto the positive list. ANH believes that a far more appropriate system forbanning any substances that might pose a risk tohealth would be to produce a Negative list foringredients where there was proper evidence of lack ofsafety. The system proposed by the EU was going to baningredients on the basis that companies did not havethe financial capacity to meet the high data thresholdrequired for the scientific dossiers demanded by EUauthorities. In this way, ingredients that have beenpart of the human diet for thousands of years, andwhich are increasingly difficult to derive fromconventional foods, would be lost, and would not beable to be supplemented. The future of the leading edge of natural healthsecuredDrawing its support European-wide from consumers,manufacturers, retailers, practitioners and some ofthe leading experts in nutritional medicine, ANH hastaken on the Goliath of the European Commission andthose that support the unscientific and unlawful banin the Food Supplements Directive, to protect theinterests of everyone concerned with the leading-edgeof food supplements and natural healthcare.None of the major EU countries felt the need tooppose our application for a declaration that the banon vitamins and minerals in the Food SupplementsDirective was unlawful, added Haynes,Technical Director of Nutri-Link Ltd., a UK foodsupplements company that brought the legal challengejointly with ANH. Its bizarre how this regulationgot this far.A wide welcome across the industry if the ban isoverturnedGreg Watts, Chief Executive of Ultralife, amanufacturer of leading-edge food supplements, said:This is very encouraging news. If the ban came intoforce we would have to reformulate down to simpler,more basic products that consumers and practitionersfind are less effective.Dr Damien Downing, a medical doctor and one of theUKs leading practitioners in nutritional medicine,said: Practitioners of nutritional therapy, and thereare thousands of them in the UK, largely useleading-edge food supplements. If these nutrient formsremain, we can continue to treat our patients withmeaningful solutions and provide the products that weknow are so beneficial. A ban would in one fell swoopremove the vital tools of practitioners trade.Sara Novakovic, owner of Olivers Wholefood Store inRichmond, Surrey, said: At last it is now highlylikely we can continue to offer the products that ourcustomers ask for and want, rather than have to removethem all from the shelves for no good reason andsupply them with inferior quality alternatives.The end of the beginningThis is just the beginning for the Alliance forNatural Health. Regulatory and industry pressurethrough the EU Food Supplements Directive was alwayslikely to translate globally, particularly to the US,through Codex and the World Health Organisation.Without having to justify any health hazard, andwithout considering any benefits, safety has been usedas a reason to restrict the availability of naturalfood products. Yet food supplements are the safest things thatpeople put into their mouths considerably safer eventhan conventional foods, said Dr Verkerk.With rapidly declining vitamin and mineral content infruit vegetables and other foods, and continuingincreases in degenerative diseases such as heartdisease and cancer in the West, this has always been avery big issue worth fighting for.Fundamentally, an amended Directive would help toslow down the agenda of the Codex AlimentariusCommission to export worldwide an onerous, EU-styleregime for food supplements. Hinde added. The ANH is now going to be workingon getting a proper procedure in place for the FoodSupplements Directive and in addition, the nextchallenges will be on legislation proposing to reducedosages to ineffective levels, and to restrict othernutrient forms such as amino acids, enzymes and plantnutrients. Traditional herbal remedies are also underthreat. In its work, the Alliance for Natural Healthwill continue its thorough, professional approachbased, as always, on good science, good law.ENDSFor enquiries and further information contact:Alliance for Natural Healthwwwalliance-natural-health.orgDr Verkerk, Executive DirectorTel. +44 (0)1252 371 275E-mail: robv@... C. Hinde, Solicitor, Legal DirectorTel: +44 (0)20 7738 1640E-mail: davidh@...IKON Associates(PR advisers to the Alliance for Natural Health) ShawTel: +44 (0)1483 535102Mobile: +44 (0)797 990 0733E-mail: adrian@... DonkersleyTel: +44 (0)1483 535101Mobile: +44 (0)796 764 6046E-mail: paul@ikonassociatesNotes for editors:1. The Alliance for Natural Health is aEurope-wide association of manufacturers,distributors, retailers, consumers and complementarypractitioners who have an interest in foodsupplements. More information, including details ofmembers, will be found atwww.alliance-natural-health.org Good science and good law underpin all of the ANHswork, and the scientific reports produced by the ANHare endorsed by many of the worlds leading doctorsand scientists working in the field of nutrition.2. If the ban on vitamins and minerals isimplemented there is much at stake:7 Over 5000 products will disappear from theshelves of UK health stores as a result of the banremoving access to over 300 vitamin and mineralingredients (out of a total of about 420). Theseinclude, amongst others, the main natural forms ofVitamin E, several forms of vitamin C, the key naturalform of folic acid, MSM and a range of minerals suchas vanadium, silicon and boron, all being productswhich millions of consumers choose to take as part oftheir regular health regime and have done so withoutany ill effects for many years.7 An individuals freedom of choice to takesafe natural health products will be removed 40% ofthe UKs population take vitamins and minerals.7 Products are to be banned with absolutely noscientific justification. Many of the worlds leadingscientific and medical experts in nutrition supportthe absence of any proper basis for the proposed bans.7 Although the proposed bans related only tovitamins and minerals, unless overturned, thePositive list system will most likely be transferredto other nutrients used in food supplements, such asplant extracts, amino acids and enzymes. The precedentset by an ANH victory will drastically reduce thechance of future bans on these other nutrient forms.7 Further legislative proposals by the EU aredue to be considered by the European Parliament laterthis and next year. These include restrictions onmaximum dosages of vitamins and minerals andrestrictions on health claims of foods. Again, the ANHis working to help positively shape such legislationusing its mantra of good science and good law. In health, Verkerk PhDExecutive Director, ANH Hinde, SolicitorLegal Director, ANHand the rest of the Core Team of the ANH in the UK,Sweden, Ireland and Denmark.E-mail: info@...Web: www.alliance-natural-health.orgTo unsubscribe, please go towww.alliance-natural-health.org/index.cfm?action=unsub