EC welcomes EP vote for safer products and better market surveillance
16 Apr 2014 11:48 AM
The European Commission
has welcomed the EP vote in favour of new rules to improve the safety of
consumer products circulating in the EU's internal market - including those
imported from outside the EU - and to step-up market surveillance concerning
all non-food products.
Unsafe products should not reach
consumers or other users. Their improved identification and traceability will
enable their quick removal from circulation within the EU. The new legislation
will also help business and consumers by ensuring
that a product's country of origin is indicated according
to clear and unambiguous rules.
European Commission
Vice-President @AntonioTajaniEU, Commissioner for Industry and
Entrepreneurship, said: "I am pleased the Parliament has voted in
favour of new measures for safer, compliant products, to both protect consumers
from health risks and protect business from unfair competition. Consistent
market surveillance across the EU is necessary to avoid weak spots which
threaten the public interest and create unbalanced trading
conditions. We now look to the Council to also approve these
measures".
European Commissioner for
Consumer Policy Neven Mimica, added: "Consumer must be able to
trust in the safety of products circulating in the Single Market. Today's
vote of the Parliament is an important step to improve product safety and
market surveillance and to step up the effectiveness of
enforcement. Now it is crucial to find a solution with the
Council to overcome the deadlock on the country-of-origin provision and to
ensure the important package is adopted soon”
Improved product safety
and market surveillance
The key changes approved by the
European Parliament today are:
-
Clearer responsibilities and
more coherent rules across all product sectors for manufacturers, importers and
distributors, to ensure the safety of all consumer products. This also means
lower compliance costs for businesses, especially for small and medium-sized
enterprises.
-
A single set of coherent rules
for market surveillance, providing more effective tools to national
surveillance bodies enforce safety and take action against dangerous and
non-compliant products. This means safe and compliant products throughout the
EU with an even higher level of protection, enabling more consumer confidence
in the internal market.
-
Improved traceability of
consumer products – enabling swift and effective responses to safety
problems. To achieve this manufacturers and importers will also have to ensure
that products (or their packaging) bear an indication of the product's
country of origin. For products manufactured in the EU, companies will
have the choice of indicating either a particular EU country or the
"EU" as the place of origin.
-
Creation of a more cooperative
system of market surveillance across the EU. Better coordination of product
safety checks means eliminating unfair competition from dishonest or rogue
operators.
-
Streamlined procedures for the
notification of dangerous products, and synergies between the existing Rapid
Alert Information System (RAPEX) and the Information and Communication System for
Market Surveillance (ICSMS).
For more detail see: IP/13/111: Safer products and a level playing field in the internal
market
Next steps
The proposal will now be
submitted to the Council for its final approval. Once adopted by the Council
the new legislation is expected to come into effect in 2015. Its rules will be
enforced by the national market surveillance authorities in EU
countries.
Background
In the EU and the European Free
Trade Area/European Economic Area countries, goods move freely and consumers
and businesses can buy and sell to more than 490 million
people.
EU consumer product safety rules
and those concerning their ongoing surveillance in the market by national
authorities form the basis for a safe single market. But these rules are
currently scattered between different pieces of legislation, thus creating gaps
and overlaps. With the agreement of the Council, Directive 87/357/EEC on
food-imitating products and Directive 2001/95/EC on general product safety will
be replaced by a new state-of-the-art Consumer Product Safety Regulation. The
rules governing market surveillance will also be merged into one legal
instrument, applicable to all (non-food) products.
More information available
at:
IP/13/111: Safer products and a level playing field in the internal
market
MEMO/13/93: Product Safety and Market Surveillance
Package 2013 - Questions and answers
The entire package can be found
on DG SANCO and DG
ENTR websites.