mr president parliament is coming to the end of its term and some of us are starting to make preparations for the elections
in the united kingdom at least i see us faced with a sea of euro-sceptics and europhobes wishing to criticise everything we do at every opportunity
and the history of this legislation will give them some ammunition fifty-five significant changes over the past thirty years making it more cumbersome and confusing and hardly helping the industry or consumers
yet i find that the critics often tend to stop short
they do not tend to actually look at what the european union is doing to try and improve upon the existing situation and to put benefits into practice
they assume we are always static
so here we have a piece of legislation that in practice has ensured that existing arrangements are simplified that red tape is cut that the legislation is clarified for all
and we have a directive turned into a regulation
now back in my country that is terrible that takes a way a bit of freedom for manoeuvre for member states but the reality is as we have seen with reach as we now see with this industry does not want twenty-seven different interpretations of a european rule it wants the facility of knowing exactly where it stands across this market the greatest market of its kind in the world
will the critics stand up and say we were wrong to insist that cmrs be banned
will they stand up and say we were wrong
will they say what we be putting into cosmetics products that we would not put into foods despite the fact that some of these cosmetics we put on our skins in our eyes even taking in our mouths
will they oppose proper assessments being made of cosmetics or the centralised information service which the commissioner has rightly said will actually save industry money
i do not think they will do any of these things
my colleague frédérique ries who cannot be with us tonight wanted to ensure that steps were taken to try and avoid the marketing of counterfeit products to strengthen product traceability and to tighten up restrictions on the making of false claims about the beneficial effects of these products
she wanted to support clear labelling of products about the content of nanomaterials
we have made progress on all these areas
so on her behalf i would like to thank the rapporteur the shadow rapporteurs and commissioner verheugen
i think it is a good piece of legislation and i for one as i go into this election process will be very happy to hold this up as an example of what the european union can do well
