The precautionary principle within European Union public health policy: The implementation of the principle under conditions of supranationality and citizenship

Health Policy

Volumn 66, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 179-197

  Antonopoulou, Lila ^a   Van Meurs, Philip ^b  

^a ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI   (Greece)

^b NONE

Author keywords

European Union; Precautionary principle; Public health policy

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY; CALCULATION; COMMERCIAL PHENOMENA; DNA MODIFICATION; EUROPEAN UNION; FOOD; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HEALTH HAZARD; HUMAN; LOGIC; METHODOLOGY; MODEL; ORGANIZATION; PRACTICE GUIDELINE; RISK ASSESSMENT; SOCIAL STATUS;

EID: 0142258095     PISSN: 01688510     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0168-8510(03)00049-6     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. A/CONF. 151/26, vol. 1, Rio Conference on Environment and Development.
2. Article 5, paragraph 7.
3. Saunders PT. Use and abuse of the precautionary principle, http://www.i-sis.org/prec.shtml, 13 July 2000.
4. Goldstein BD. The precautionary principle and scientific research are not antithetical, Environmental Health Perspectives 1999; p. 107.
5. Skolnikov EB. The elusive transformation, science - technology and the evolution of international politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 194.
6. Jones RA. The politics and economics of the European Union. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 1996, p. 76.
7. The Codex MRA from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, Alinorm 99/13 Appendix IV, http://www.foodriskclearinghouse.umd. edu/Codex_MRA.htm .
8. Vaque G, Ehring L, Jacquet C. Le principe de précaution dans la législation communautaire et national relative á la protection de la santé, Revue du Marché Unique Européen 1/1999, supra, p. 90.
9. See Luhmann K, Soziologie des Risikos. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 1991, p. 19, quoted in Georgiadou V, Risks in post-modernity. A socio-political analysis, In: Louloudi L, Georgiadou V, Stavrakaki J, editors. Phusis, koinonia, episteme, sten epoche ton 'trelon ageladon'. Diakindineuse ke Avevaioteta (Nature, Society, Science at the time of the, mad cows disease'. Risks and Uncertainty). Athens: Nephele, p. 92.
10. Cameron J, Abouchar T. The Precautionary Principle and International Law. A Challenge of Implementation. Kluwer Law International, The Hague, 1996, p. 103.
11. See Luhmann K, quoted in Georgiadou V, supra n. 9, p. 91.
12. Article 174, paragraph 2.
13. Article 174, paragraph 3.
14. Article 152, paragraph 1.
15. Article 95, paragraph 3.
16. Thus these international agreements are considered binding, with regard to negotiations and other diplomatic means for solving disputes, between the contributing parties, they are not considered as providing legal basis for recourse to third parties, such as national or international courts and arbitrators.
17. Official Journal 1989;L186:23-4.
18. Article 1, paragraph 2.
19. Official Journal 1989;L:40:27-33.
20. Appendix II.c, article 6.
21. Appendix II.b, article 6.
22. See Vaque G, Ehring L, Jacquet C, supra n. 8, p. 89.
23. Official Journal 1993;L.37:1-3.
24. Article 2, paragraph 2.
25. Article 2, paragraph 3.
26. See the Communication from the Commission of 2 February 2000 on the precautionary principle, COM, 1 final
27. A prion is a variant of an aminoacid the building block of proteins of which there exist a number of different variations. It has the same chemical composition as the original 'useful' aminoacid, but its shape and electrical properties are different. Living organisms cannot distinguish between the prion and its 'normal' counterpart. This causes the malformation of proteins or it may even prevent the organism form forming proteins altogether. The spongiform aspect of BSE shows that necessary proteins could not form and emptiness is the result.
28. For more see the essay by Louloudi L, in: Louloudi L, Georgiadou V, Stavrakaki J, editors. Risking public health. The political managing of the 'mad cows' disease, supra, n. 9, p. 22f.
29. See J. Cameron and T. Abouchar, supra n. 10, p. 110.
30. Ibid, p. 111.
31. Extensive excerpts of the Ortega report as well as of the parliamentary session convening on the occasion of the report are published in the volume European Parliament, News of the Session of February 1997, issue PE 255.893, p. 19-29; also see the parliamentary session minutes of July 1996 for the establishing of an investigative committee published in the same volume, issue 250.641, p. 34-7.
32. See relevant news reports in Le Monde (19.4.2000) and in the Bulletin Quotidien Europe, no. 7687, 30.3.2000, p. 12, no. 7700, 17/18.4.2000, p. 7, and no. 7710, 5.5.2000, p. 15
33. For more on this see Le Monde, 27.10.1999, 2.11.1999, and 3.1.2000.
34. See Section 1 of the present study.
35. Bulletin Quotidien Europe, no. 7140, 17.1.1998, 8.
36. See Le Monde, 26.5.2000.
37. It is estimated that today in the United States alone, there are 248 million square kilometres of genetically modified seed farms cultivating seeds sold by Monsanto (compared to 11 million square kilometres back in 1996), when the total of genetically modified seed farming land spans in the United States an area of 287 million square kilometres, and in the rest of the world 399 million square kilometres (20 million square kilometres in 1996), and while 54 and 19% of those farms are covered by soy and corn, respectively. Source: Kathimerini newspaper, 21.11.1999.
38. See relevant report Le Monde, 6.4.2000. It is estimated that today in the United States alone, there are 248 million square kilometres of genetically modified seed farms cultivating seeds sold by Monsanto (compared to 11 million square kilometres back in 1996), when the total of genetically modified seed farming land spans in the United States an area of 287 million square kilometres, and in the rest of the world 399 million square kilometres (20 million square kilometres in 1996), and while 54 and 19% of those farms are covered by soy and corn, respectively. Source: Kathimerini newspaper, 21.11.1999.
39. see French Senate website http://www.senat.fr/rap/r97, Information Report by senator Jean Bizet: Transgeniques: pour des choix responsables.
40. In the electronic address http://www.altern.org/ogm/, which contains a vast number of information on action taken against, complaints lodged, or even simple informative essays, regarding the harmful effects on human health of biotechnological applications. Such information is circulated by as many as 23 non-governmental organisations.
41. See Dufour R, Les savants fous de l'agroalimentaire, Le Monde Diplomatique, July 1999, p. 7.
42. Source: special report of the Ekonomikos Tachydromos review, 13.5.2000,p. 41-2.
43. In April 2000, the Council and the European Parliament refused to adopt the motion of non-governmental organisations (a motion which reached these authorities on the initiative of certain Green Euro-MPs) regarding the inclusion in the Directive (the 23.4.1990 Community Directive, regarding genetically modified organisms) of an article which would have allowed for making those who disseminate genetically modified organisms responsible for every damage incurred on human health or the environment from such dissemination. The plenary session of the European Parliament threw out this motion with a very slim majority. Had the motion been adopted it is quite certain that it would have forced biotechnological companies to stop the commercialisation and production, at least in Europe, of genetically modified seeds, also because of the considerable financial cost they would have to shoulder in the case of a court ruling on the basis of their civil responsibility. Relevant site of the European Parliament: http://www.europarl. eu.int./, the cited above http://www.altern.org/ogm (where information by non-governmental organisations is released), and Le Monde, 13.4.2000.
44. COM, 1999, 719.
45. Directive 2001/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 March 2001 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms and repealing Council Directive 90/220/EEC (8).
46. Directive 2001/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 March 2001 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms and repealing Council Directive 90/220/EEC (8). art. 1: In accordance with the precautionary principle, the objective of this Directive is to approximate the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States and to protect human health and the environment when: -.
47. See in more detail Scharpf F, Gouverner l'Europe, Presses des Sciences, Paris, 1999, p. 16ff.
48. See Dehousse R, The European court of justice: the politics of judicial integration. London: Macmillan Press, 1998, p. 13ff.
49. Ibid, p. 15.
50. On the same subject compare the articles of: Berlan G and Lewontin F in Le Monde Diplomatique (December 1998) La menace du complexe genetico-industriel, and Pisani E in Le Monde Diplomatique (April 1995) Pour que le monde nourisse le monde, and Dufour R, supra n. 41.