EU Health Crises and the 'voice of the European People' (the European parliament)

This paper will argue that the European parliament has not been a friend of the European consumer and has consistently undermined EU measures to address present-day and future health crises. This is a paradox since we would expect that the European parliament, and ENVI in particular, side with the Commission and NGOs. Nevertheless, it would appear that advocacy coalitions and programmatic networks have a greater impact on the deliberations in the Commission than in the European parliament.

The explanation is twofold. First, lobbying is intense in the network of  public health policy making and the EP is subject to ferocious lobbying by the private (industry) sector, which is often opposed to particular public health measures. However, industry exerts this kind of influence because the most powerful weapon that NGOs can employ is moral outrage. To be sure, many health crises do not lend themselves to emotional appeals that will mobilize the public and that will curb the political influence of producers.

This paper will compare tobacco control with the many measures that have been contemplated to address obesity and diets high in (unhealthy) calories. In the case of smoking, NGOs had the moral upper hand. But it has been difficult to galvanize voters by mentioning BMI (body mass index) and growing incidence of diabetes. Food and food companies do not carry a moral stigma because they sell products with refined sugar or high salt content or ‘bad’ fats. Unable to fall back on the moral high ground, NGOs are no match for the private sector and the EP is defenseless against (unrestrained) industry lobbying.