Petition addressed to the European Commission

• recall that the European Parliament in its resolution A4-0075 of May 29th 1997, requested the European Commission to initiate a procedure whereby non conventional medicines would be recognized and to issue a directive on food supplements;
• note that this request was only heeded in so far as food supplements are concerned (directive 2002/46) but that nothing has been done in respect of non conventional medicines;
• draw attention to the fact that since 2005, WHO recommends that knowledge and know how in the field of health stemming from diverse cultural traditions be also taken into consideration in the health policies of countries deemed to be developed;
• observe that community institutions have adopted programmes aimed at combating obesity and chronic disease and that non conventional medicines constitute a useful way of facing up to these issues both in curative and preventive terms;
• underline the increasing popularity of many non conventional therapies throughout the European Union;
• remark a manifest disparity in the status of practitioners, doctors or not, who have recourse to non conventional medicines despite their use being widespread in the member states of the European Union.

Consequently the petitioners request that the European Commission take the legislative steps required for the legal recognition of non conventional medical disciplines. For the heterogeneity observed in this matter constitutes not only a serious obstacle to the free circulation of practitioners and their right to establish their practice but also the denial of the rights of European citizens to freely chose the practitioner or therapy they see fit. The present unsatisfactory state of affairs thus prejudices that protection of health which was aimed at in article 35 of the European Union's Charter of fundamental rights.

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