EU Health Commissioner praising corporate lobbyists

The Financial Times was pretty clear about the agenda of the industry: 'Food and drinks companies can avoid draconian regulation if they voluntarily cut down on fat and salt in their products, give clear nutritional information and reduce advertising to children, the European Commission said on Thursday.'  According to Markos Kyprianou, the health commissioner, 'We are facing a complex problem that cannot be solved by legislation,' Unbelievably this is referred to as a 'name and praise' strategy. In other words no action will be taken to require the food industry to stop the well known marketing practices that are a key cause of the epidemic of obesity.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, the soft drinks companies, McDonald’s, the US burger chain, and packaged food giants Unilever and Kraft were singled out as good examples of companies that had changed for the better. These are amongst the worst and most deceptive corporations in the world.  Among the measures taken, reported EUObserver:

Kraft has said it will stop selling in primary schools, Unilever has reduced salt and sugar content in its products while the nine companies that are members of the Union of European Beverages Associations have said they will stop advertising to under-12s.

Given the history of these corporations deceptive PR strategies it is unlikely that they will keep to their promises and there is no mechanism to ensure that they do. Coca Cola showed its usual deceptive stripes by claiming that the meeting showed that 'EU Health Commission Credits Company With Helping To Combat Obesity'

Even worse, these measures are of course entirely inadequate to tackle the problem.  But the European Commission is so deeply committed to neoliberal 'partnership' with the corporations that we can expect much more of this kind of thing.