Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-25-Speech-2-047"
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"en.20070925.5.2-047"2
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"Madam President, it is really an honour and pleasure for me to stand here with Vice-President Verheugen to address Parliament on the critical issue of dangerous products and product safety. The Commission is united, as you see, in tackling this issue and happy to give you its position from two complementary points of view.
Although Commissioner Verheugen was really quite exhaustive in his exposé, let me say that as regards revision of the so-called New Approach Package, taking special care of the health and safety of European citizens requires us to preserve the specific and successful system established by the General Product Safety Directive. By the end of this year, we will produce the first of the reports we are obliged to produce every three years according to the directive, and you will see that this mechanism is really an effective one based on community, solidarity and proportionality. I am convinced of your view as well in asking to put safety before one-size-fits-all streamlining and to consider favourably the draft regulation as originally proposed by the Commission.
We need also to be aware that this is not happening for the first time. If you compare how we have been through all the unpleasant events which happen on the market regarding food safety, we can really enhance our institutional comparison and do our best on product safety because in this globalised world we cannot just be an island. We need to exercise our control and to assure European citizens that the attention from Community authorities is the same everywhere and complements the efforts of the Member States.
Our open society and our open economy offer citizens choices that were unaffordable and/or unimaginable only a generation ago. This is major progress, but it comes with a challenge, as we have seen in recent months. I refer, of course, to concerns about the safety of products and, in particular, children’s toys. Citizens need to know that their safety is underpinned by sound rules, efficient and vigorous authorities and responsible business.
I will start this brief exposé with a few words about law and its enforcement, because it is crucial. I believe that the current regulatory framework for consumer product safety in the EU is fundamentally sound and will be reinforced by the pending Commission proposal on the New Approach Directives. I refer in particular to the General Product Safety Directive with its RAPEX system referring to a fundamentally sound framework. We already have the legal framework to deal with dangerous products made in China or anywhere else. The challenge of ensuring an internal market of safe goods lies primarily in the effective enforcement of the present legal framework, and, if we read the directive again carefully, this enforcement power belongs to the Member States. The Member States’ market surveillance authorities and customs controls have a duty to ensure that dangerous products are not placed on the market, or are withdrawn or recalled. The Member States must have in place effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties for infringements, and it is written in Article 7 of the General Product Safety Directive that it is really the responsibility of the Member States.
Of course, enforcement by public authorities is only complementary to businesses respecting their legal and ethical obligations, as Commissioner Verheugen stated just minutes ago. It is the responsibility of manufacturers, importers and distributors to make sure that they place only safe products on the market and take necessary measures where they become aware of a risk to consumer safety.
Just a few words about recent product recalls, which, of course, are our major concern. On the issue of these recent dangerous product recalls, the Commission would be more worried by silence than by activity, and transparency builds trust. That is why I can only encourage the national authorities to enhance their surveillance and to inform the Commission about dangerous goods and not just to keep silent for one reason or another, such as not wanting to bother people before Christmas or just trying to tackle the problem in silence.
Of course, questions remain. Are operators notifying problems sufficiently quickly, and are their internal audits up to scratch? How can we ensure earlier and more effective intervention by the market surveillance authorities and better monitoring of product recalls? Nevertheless, the recent recalls have shown that improvements can and should be made on the entire product supply chain, encompassing, amongst other things, product design, suppliers of contractor management, manufacturing process controls and finished product testing.
I would like to talk for a while on relations with China and the United States. The Commission also questions whether China is doing enough. During my recent visit to China, my main message was that Europe does not and will not compromise on consumer safety. I stressed that and obtained the commitment of the Chinese authorities on specific progress targets. There is no argument from the market which could compete with the safety of products and the safety of people’s lives. I stand prepared to bring them to task should they fail to deliver. In October, I expect the report from the Chinese authorities, and I am really doing everything possible to assure them that I will not hesitate to take measures if they fail to deliver.
Constructive cooperation with China has already produced results – withdrawn export licences of certain substandard products. I have to say that I spent four days in China and, within these four days, there were recalls of the licences of the two biggest toy manufacturers. This puts Europe well ahead in comparison with other developed countries facing similar issues. As you know, on 16 September, the working group established by the US President issued a report with quite similar measures to those Europe has already taken on board to secure the safety of goods. We are also in contact with the US consumer product safety authorities and policy makers with a view to mutually reinforcing our messages to the Chinese Government. I have already talked with the chairwoman of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), Ms McCarthy, about the results from their visit to the United States. Next week, when I am in the US, I will check how we could cooperate. The aim is to give a crystal clear signal to the Chinese. Adequate safety guarantees will not work as a bargaining chip in relations with one or another economic block; they are a sine qua non for access to either.
I would like to conclude with the next steps which we envisage. The Commission is committed to making every effort to ensure that toys sold for the Christmas season will not lead to unpleasant surprises, and this commitment is very clear. Maybe we need a kind of Christmas pact with producers, with importers, with all the authorities in the Member States, which should ensure vigorous implementation, and consumer organisations. The Commission will update Parliament regularly on developments, in particular on the conclusion of the stocktaking exercise reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the consumer product safety mechanism currently in place in mid-November, and following the forthcoming EU-China Summit at the end of November. At the beginning of next month, on the third, there will be a gathering of all the national authorities in Brussels at which we will compare our views on how the directives on safety are implemented everywhere. We have already had extensive talks with all the toy makers, including Mattel, involving the sharing of practices. As I recently informed the IMCO Committee, this is no time for knee-jerk reactions. Together with Vice-President Verheugen and a number of fellow Commissioners, we will ensure the necessary, proportionate and appropriate response to the issues that have surfaced with regard to public confidence in the governance of global product safety."@en1
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