MEPs green light rules on medicinal products trials and tobacco, and simplify rules on returning cultural heritage objects to Member States.

Clinical trials / Tobacco laws / Recovering national treasures

Clinical trials are necessary to improve and  develop new medicine to combat disease.

But in recent years  they’ve been on a steady decline in Europe:

too much bureaucracy and expense  has forced companies to decamp abroad,

but new rules are set  to revitalise the market

and one of the big changes  is increased accountability.

We’ll get a summary of all results  whether they are positive or negative,

which will be publicly accessible  and we will also have clinical study reports

of all of those trials  going for authorisation of medicines.

Help for those trying to stub out the habit,  via an overhaul of tobacco laws.

With 700,000 deaths a year in Europe,  much more needed to be done.

The Health Committee has  rubber-stamped a deal ensuring

65% of tobacco packaging  to carry a health warning

and for flavoured and menthol cigarettes  to be phased out,

as well as regulation of e-cigarettes  for the first time.

The draft law will go for final MEP approval  at the Plenary in February or early March,

with the new Directive  coming into force in 2016.

It’s not always the most expensive object  that holds the greatest value.

Whether it’s a private painting, religious  statue or even an archaeological finding,

repatriation of valuable or cultural artefacts  has been going on for decades.

But in the last 20 years  there have been just 60 repatriations.

New rules could help  facilitate the process between States.

The key provision of the text is to foster  a mechanism for administrative cooperation

between Member States,  to enable and facilitate

the exchange of information between them

removing some of the misunderstandings  there may be between States.