Framing a proactive policy for public authorities in Europe aimed at preventing overweight and achieving regulation
Motion for a recommendation
| Doc. 11825
| 02 February 2009
- Signatories:
- Ms Marietta KARAMANLI,
France, SOC ; Mr Laurent BÉTEILLE,
France, EPP/CD ; Ms Rossana BOLDI,
Italy, EDG ; Mr Georges COLOMBIER,
France, EPP/CD ; Ms Josette DURRIEU,
France, SOC ; Ms Lydie ERR,
Luxembourg, SOC ; Mr Jean-Charles GARDETTO,
Monaco, EPP/CD ; Mr Luc GOUTRY,
Belgium ; Mr Norbert HAUPERT,
Luxembourg ; Mr Jean HUSS,
Luxembourg, SOC ; Mr Denis JACQUAT,
France, EPP/CD ; Mr Geert LAMBERT,
Belgium ; Mr Pietro MARCENARO,
Italy, SOC ; Mr Aristotelis PAVLIDIS,
Greece ; Mr Giuseppe SARO,
Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Paul WILLE,
Belgium
- Thesaurus
This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.
According to the World Health Organisation (OMS), obesity
is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st
century. Its prevalence has tripled in many of the countries in
the WHO's European region since the 1980s and the numbers of those
affected continue to rise at an alarming rate, particularly among
children.
In recent years our Assembly adopted a resolution encouraging
responsible food consumption (February 2005) which resulted in a
recommendation (October 2007) emphasising inter
alia that the first step towards responsible consumption
was healthy eating; the Assembly has also received a motion for
a resolution aimed at preventing obesity and promoting healthy eating
habits among children and teenagers; as long ago as 1994 our Assembly
adopted a report on food and health calling for improvements in
consumer eating habits. Generally speaking, these parliamentary
efforts have highlighted the need to improve information and education
on nutrition, the merits of defining references for healthy eating
and the wisdom of focusing on consumer awareness so that people
make civic-minded choices.
Despite our Assembly's commitment, the measures mentioned
or recommended have not been widely implemented while obesity constitutes
the most widespread non-transmissible illness in the world, and
political authorities and citizens must now take action as a matter
of urgency.
A global policy for combating overweight and obesity and assisting
those who suffer from such problems should already have been framed.
Independent public bodies have already highlighted the risk
of Europe's children becoming overweight and obese and issued calls
for a complete overhaul of the way in which the food they eat is
advertised, particularly on television.
At the same time, studies have shown that the big corporations
in the food production, distribution and catering sector do not
follow World Health Organisation recommendations to limit the use
of salt, sugar and fat in their products, to reduce the size of
individual portions, to promote consumer advice and to encourage
or aid physical activity.
For these reasons, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe asks the Committee of Ministers to:
- make prevention and information measures to combat the
epidemic of obesity, particularly among children, a public action
priority: this requires preventive efforts from school age onwards,
effective screening, the provision of a wide range of tailored nutritional
advice, free of any guilt factor. All our collective intelligence
must be mobilised, particularly where the youngest members of society
are concerned;
- invite and then urge and possibly force food industry
manufacturers and distributors to revise both the composition of
some of their products (quality and health standards) as well as
their efforts to encourage and promote the consumption of products
considered somewhat or completely damaging to health;
- call on the member States to restrict advertising aimed
at children, especially on television, for excessively sugary, salty,
fatty or nutritionally unbalanced foods;
- propose that the member States take steps to guarantee
proper access to medical advice and suitable care for persons at
risk of obesity and/or various complications linked to this pathology;
- urge the States to take a firm stand against measures
discriminating against persons suffering from obesity of the kind
that may adversely affect their access to transport, work organisation,
ease of performing their work etc;
- encourage joint thinking on how our collective day-to-day
life can promote the practice of "gentle" and less stressful physical
activities. Transport, the layout of urban routes and the organisation
of work-time must enable citizens and workers to benefit from their
movements, breaks and rest periods to relax at their ease and expend
energy safely and comfortably.