While the EPP wanted the payments to be suspended only if the research results revealed a risk to the distribution of the drug, the ECR wanted the program to be suspended while the research is being carried out. Amendments were adopted, some briefly: The EPP proposal was adopted with 305 in favor, 238 against, and 11 abstentions; The ECR proposal was approved with 282 votes in favor, 245 against and 13 abstentions.
Overall, the amended resolution was passed with 294 votes in favour, 245 against and 28 abstentions.
MEP of the Socialists and Democrats Tiemo Wölken said that by supporting the amendment of the ECR, “which deleted the need to protect public budgets and condemned the EPR principle in general, the EPP revealed its true colors: this was never about improving the system or protecting access to medicine, but instead it was part of their ideological war against responsibility for environmental pollution.”
Vlad Vasile-Voiculescu, from the centrist group Renew, 14 of whom supported the amendment, said that suspending extended producer responsibility would not solve the challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry in Europe.
“All it will do is delay investment, undermine legal certainty and delay action to reduce hazardous pollutants in our waterways,” he said. “We need practical solutions to protect the supply of medicines, not political shortcuts that undermine environmental law.”
Go to the Commission
Although not legally binding, the resolution is now difficult for the Commission to ignore after gaining support from a large group in Parliament, 14 MPs from Renew, four from the socialists, as well as right-wing groups.
