Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-010"
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"en.20080219.5.2-010"2
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".
Madam President, Commissioner, representatives of the Presidency, ladies and gentlemen, the subject matter and legal intricacies of the Regulation on accreditation and market surveillance are complex, and it has all the appearances of a very dry and largely technical instrument. There can be no doubt, however, that it has highly significant political implications for consumers and for the European economy as a whole. The problems which prompted the Commission to draft its proposal and which underlie the numerous amendments and decisions adopted by the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection in the course of its debates are plain for all to see. I shall confine my remarks to three specific issues.
Firstly, accreditation has not hitherto been regulated on a European scale, although it is practised in most Member States and significantly affects the performance of market-surveillance authorities. Given the internal market and free movement of goods in the EU, it is extremely important to consumers that the evident differences in the quality and effectiveness of market-surveillance authorities should be harmonised upwards by means of European rules governing accreditation bodies. To this end, the European Parliament has gone beyond the Commission proposal with a view to imposing distinctly more stringent obligations on these bodies and on the Member States. The Regulation clearly prohibits the commercialisation of accreditation bodies, stipulates that they must operate on a non-profit basis and must not compete with other bodies and enshrines their independence and their status as public authorities.
Secondly, although the safety and protection of consumers and the environment are regulated by numerous European guidelines and other binding standards, last year’s case involving the US toy manufacturer Martell, and not only that case, showed that current practice is unsatisfactory in many instances and, moreover, that there are wide divergences in the enforcement of the rules at Europe’s borders and within the European market, surveillance in some cases being inadequate. There is, of course, a need for changes and improvements to individual directives, such as the Toy Safety Directive. The main objective of the Commission in its proposal for a regulation, however, was to improve, strengthen and harmonise the system of market surveillance. The European Parliament not only shared this position but also developed many aspects of it, substantially fleshing out and tightening the obligations on Member States and market-surveillance authorities, including the requirements relating to cooperation with customs authorities. In our view, that also implied a strict disclosure obligation for the authorities and provisions on public freedom of information. I am pleased that the Council and the Commission have responded to this concern of Parliament.
Thirdly, I personally believe that Parliament’s greatest success and the most significant improvement we have achieved has been the inclusion of consumer goods. The advantages of this Regulation, which lie in its strictly binding nature, can be combined with the advantages of the General Product Safety Directive, which include highly detailed consumer-protection measures, albeit with minimal binding force. This was the most difficult area of our discussions and negotiations with the Commission and the Council in both legal and technical terms. The fruitful outcome was undoubtedly due to the fact that, although the three institutions favoured different approaches, they agreed on the aims of greater protection of consumers and more effective market surveillance. For this reason I would also like to thank Commissioners Kuneva and Verheugen, the Commission staff and our negotiating partners from the German and Portuguese Presidencies and particularly from the Slovenian Presidency for their intensive, constructive and considerate cooperation. May I also take this opportunity to record my gratitude to the late Michel Ayral, who was involved in organising most of this cooperation, which makes his recent death an even greater loss for us all. I can endorse the view of the Presidency that the outcome could scarcely have been achieved by now without the overarching cooperation of the three most recent incumbents of the Presidency.
The legal basis for consumer health and safety, for protection of the environment and for appropriate product quality has been significantly reinforced by this Regulation. It is up to the Member States and the Commission now to take the opportunities it offers to achieve tangible improvements for consumers. Let me also express my special thanks to the shadow rapporteurs, Christel Schaldemose und Alexander Stubb, for their exemplary cooperation in the preparation of this package."@en1
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