BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe's soft drinks industry unveiled proposals on Wednesday to drop advertising aimed at children under 12 and remove vending machines from primary schools, to help fight growing obesity in the European Union.

Companies such as Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo would stop screening commercials during children's television programmes, industry umbrella group UNESDA said in proposals presented to the
European Commission.

Vending machines would no longer be placed in primary schools unless requested and machines in secondary schools would contain healthier products such as water and juices, and would be labeled with positive health messages.

Soft drinks companies would increase the range of new beverages with a "low-calorie" or "no-calorie" content and produce more "light" versions of existing drinks.

UNESDA represents a large part of Europe's non-alcoholic drinks industry, a huge sector with annual turnover of about 150 billion euros. Its members also include Unilever and Cadbury Schweppes.

UNESDA's meeting with the Commission is part of the EU executive's drive against obesity, launched last year to improve cooperation between the Commission, the food and drinks industry, and health and consumer groups.

"This is the first time ever that the major beverage producers in Europe come together to...define their commitments related to responsible sales and marketing practices, especially to children and schools," said Stephen Kehoe, vice president public and government Affairs, PepsiCo Europe.

Pan-European consumers group BEUC hailed the industry's proposals as a "step in the right direction." Companies have yet to say when they will stop advertising aimed at children.

Last year, EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou warned that, unless industry was ready to take action about obesity, he might introduce legislation.

"We welcome the initiative and will now analyze the proposals," a spokesman for the Commissioner said.

The Commission is expected to give its opinion on the proposals in early March.

in VA we only have diet sodas (in school) which pisses me off because i'm not obese.

learn self control goddamnit, and if you can't, or you can and it just doesn't work, get some outside help.


sorry. this is coming from my being bitter last year when i didn't drive to my second school and i had to drink what was offered. now, i can go out and buy whatever the hell i want

In other news, eliminating Joe Camel really did stop kids from smoking....

I thought this was about .

of course school age folk are known for their decision making abilities, which is why the quality of music on mtv's trl is so deep and rich

i'm speaking for myself, not for everyone else. i don't eat all day everyday. i drink soda when i go to my boyfriends house, because they restock mountain dew for me. i can handle myself just fine. other people apparently cannot and so then it becomes a great idea to deprive those with self control of the caffiene they so dearly appreciated to keep them chipper in their morning classes.

the vanilla diet pepsi wasn't awful, but they never restocked that. conspiracy

I think marketing and advertising candy, sugar cereal, fast food and soda to children should be banned across the board.

they restock soda at your boyfriend's place...does he live in the stockroom of a 7-11

okay, this is all in fun....

but to state that you have a dependency on something that is under consideration for removal for its negative side effects is making me chuckle a little

now, would that just be food that's served quickly, or all food? cereal with ingredients containing naturally-occuring sugar?

hey hey I know it's all in fun. You smiled.

No, I don't need it. I just like it.
I liked having it there when I wanted it... and then it wasn't there one day. I lived, though. I just like to bitch sometimes. I'm a woman, it's what I do best.

hahaha, no. His mom just likes me, I suppose.

I've been to schools that have yanked soft drinks in favor of milk machines. But, there are all these crazy milky flavors with the same sugar content. And now there's the fat content as well.

Also, I hung out with a guy from Australia a few months ago, and I had to check out the LARGE PRINT WARNING on the pack of cigarettes he was smoking. I asked him what he thought about the giant label telling him he was going to die from smoking.

His reply? "No shit. I knew that before the label. You see how well it works every time I light another one."

A bunch of juices out there are pretty suspect too.

Yeah, Canada has that too. That's why I always buy a carton at the border. Plus, at the duty free the Camel cartons are a big fucking cig pack instead of the rectangular thing and really, a giant fucking Camel Lights box is sorta funny.