mr president i would like to congratulate the rapporteur and the other colleagues who have contributed to this dossier
i would also like to congratulate commissioner dalli
i think we have reached a good outcome and now the report is much more patient-oriented than the initial proposal
nowadays patients increasingly tend to seek health-related information so that they can be actively involved in the decisions concerning their health
patients also tend to seek information online
this information is not easy to control on the internet but sooner or later we have to deal with that problem which will not disappear if we simply do not do anything because it is too complicated
i therefore support imposing strict rules for the registration and monitoring of websites as well as making available a list of registered websites so that patients can be sure of the reliability of their source
safeguards are also needed and the report provides them namely by limiting the information that can be made available to information that is approved by the competent authorities
to this end we in the committee on the internal market and consumer protection have adopted a number of amendments covering advertising concentrating on changing the wording from disseminate to make available in the context of non-promotional information according to the pull principle whereby patients have access to information if they need it
