EU threatens to ban vitamin supplements (The Independent on Sunday, 10 March 2002, page 13)
Some of the most popular vitamin and mineral pills are likely to be banned after a vote in the European Parliament this week. The vote, on Tuesday, is expected to put the finishing touches to a new EU law designed to crack down on the sale of the pills. Critics say that the law … will plunge countless people into distress, and put hundreds of health food shops out of business.
300 vitamin treatments face ban in Euro purge (The Daily Telegraph, 11 March 2002, page 7)
Ninety per cent of multivitamin and mineral preparations and many other supplements are likely to be removed from the shelves of British health shops and chemists if a European directive becomes law…
Euro law ‘doom’ for health shops (Evening Standard, 11 March 2002, page 5)
Hundreds of popular vitamin and mineral supplements will …

Myth: A draft European Directive threatens to ban noisy toys. “The proposed Euro rules would mean that tin plate clicking frogs, tin whistles, old fashioned football rattles, ear-piercing whistles and toy xylophones may… be silenced for good.
Sources: Independent on Sunday,  News Of The World, Sunday People, Sunday Telegraph (14 January 1996), The Sun (15 January 1996)

Truth: A general Directive on toy safety was agreed in 1988. Under the new approach to harmonisation directives, the detailed laying down of technical specifications to meet the essential requirements of the directives is left to the standrads body.

The existing European standards for toy safety are the EN71 series standards. The EC has indeed asked the standards body concerned (CEN) to look at the question of noise intensity in revising this standard. This standards body on which are represented manufacturers, consumer bodies and other interested parties has carried out scientific work using as one of its …

As from December 1995 the European Commission is outlawing Britain’s traditional mushy peas.

Daily Telegraph, p3, 9 August 1995
Today, p2, 9 August 1995
Daily Mail, p13, 10 August 1995
The Sun, p3, 10 August 1995
Daily Mirror, p9, 10 August 1995
Daily Express, p23, 10 August 1995
Western Daily Press, 10 August 1995
Western Morning News, 10 August 1995
Evening Mail, p4, 10 August 1995
Independent on Sunday, p18, 13 August 1995
Sunday Express, p37, 13 August 1995
Sunday Times, p29, 27 August 1995
This is not entirely correct. The European Commission consulted extensively with Governments and the food industry before drafting a Directive governing colours in foodstuffs, and permitting those colours to be harmless. The Directive was subsequently adopted by the European Parliament and the Council (94/36/EC), and came into force in December 1996.

One of the Directive’s general principles is that fresh and processed vegetables may not be coloured. However certain exceptions are allowed, and were introduced into the legislation following …

Myth: A Brussels Directive is responsible for making some of Britain’s most challenging rock climbs more dangerous overnight by banning ‘RP nuts’ used to limit falls.
Source: The Independent on Sunday (2 July 1995)

Response: ‘Brussels’ should not be held responsible for this, for it was the Member States and not ‘Brussels’ which agreed to the Directive. This is particularly so as the relevant part of the EU Directive involved*, in this instance dealing with equipment designed to protect people falling from height, such as Australian-made RP nuts, was agreed by every Member State with the exception of Italy.

Furthermore the Directive does not ban anything, but simply specifies the conditions under which Personal Protective Equipment can be put on the market.

The Directive provides for different testing procedures according to the gravity and irreversibility of the health risk. Its objectives are to make life easier for manufacturers by ensuring common certification procedures and …

Britain is to be forced into changing its three-pin plug to the Continental two-pin version costing domestic users of electricity a fortune in rewiring and jeopardising the high safety standards in the UK.

Daily Star, 27 May 1994, p2

Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph 3 June 1994

The Independent on Sunday, 6 June 1994, Leader
The European Commission welcomes the electrical industry’s initiative in this respect as this kind of harmonisation is very much in the interests of the Single Market allowing fair competition and providing a stimulus for innovation. However, it should be pointed out that the standard agreed by Cenelec – the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standards, an independent organisation consisting of representatives from industry and national standardisation bodies from a number of countries, would not force domestic users of electricity to replace their three pin plugs should a European norm ever be introduced. They could simply carry on using the same …