Judith A. Merkies (S&D). – (NL) Madam President, thank you, Mrs Matias, for an excellent piece of work and for the good cooperation. I believe that this is a very important scheme for the health of consumers, although up until now, they have probably not even been aware that their health has been at risk. Fortunately, at least we have finally got round to tackling all the risks now.

People’s health should not be trifled with. Indeed, I believe that, with this scheme, we are taking an important step towards making packaging safe and towards clarifying the situation. I am also very pleased that, at Parliament’s insistence, the sale of medicines via the Internet has been included in the directive, because that was a thorn in everybody’s side. If you view this situation as gambling with the health of consumers, then Internet sales are tantamount to Russian roulette. You have a 50 to 90% chance of encountering a counterfeit medicine, and then – bang! I am very pleased that this scheme has addressed that issue.

I do think, however, that some further modifications are needed, because we do not yet have cast-iron guarantees of safety. I suppose that is up to each individual Member State. Moreover, there is also the issue of the logo, of whether it will be entirely tamper-proof on the Internet, so we really have to keep an eye on this aspect.

Transparency and reliability for consumers; I hope that consumers can take a punt on medicines without gambling with their health.