Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-016"
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"en.20080219.5.2-016"2
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"Madam President, President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, the great aim of this initiative, which we presented almost exactly a year ago, was to optimise the free movement of goods within the European internal market while increasing consumer and business confidence in the rules governing the internal market.
The Regulation on accreditation and market surveillance will perceptibly increase the effectiveness of our rules for the internal market, and one of the main purpose of those rules, of course, is to guarantee the safety of products. The new rules will also ensure that compliance with the product standards we shall have, with the safety and quality requirements, can henceforth be properly verified.
In this way we are supplementing the technical rules of the internal market for the first time with a common market-surveillance policy, thereby taking a giant step in the direction of improved product safety.
During the preceding deliberations and in today’s debate too, the question of the CE marking has received particularly close attention. Let me say first of all that I am pleased to see Parliament reinforcing the CE mark with a view to ensuring that it can play its role more effectively in guaranteeing the safety of products.
Nevertheless, I definitely agree with Mrs McCarthy that this CE mark raises a number of issues which have emerged over the many years since it first came into use. One example is the question of a uniform European safety mark, to which Mrs McCarthy also referred. I am in the fortunate position of being able to tell you not only that the Commission is prepared to present the study requested by Parliament but also that we have already begun our preliminary work on it, because I see this project as a matter of urgency, and that we shall present the study as soon as possible.
As you know, the CE mark was not created at the time as a source of consumer information. That is a misunderstanding which recurs over and over again. The CE mark does nothing other than confirm that a product complies with all the relevant current legislation. The CE mark, of course, means nothing to consumers unless they are familiar with the provisions that apply to the product in question. This, I need hardly say, is clearly asking too much of consumers.
It is true that the CE mark is, in most cases, a safety mark too, but not always and not exclusively. Yet the most important information consumers want to know is whether their product is actually safe. For this reason I entirely agree with Parliament, and the Commission also sees the need to put the entire system of CE marking under the microscope.
Consideration is also being given to the question whether it is possible and expedient to introduce an additional mark. There is a need to examine very carefully whether that is feasible and what consequences it would have for all stakeholders. In any case, the Commission has an entirely open mind on this question and is willing to cooperate in any way with Parliament and the Council.
As part of our ongoing work, it goes without saying that we are also examining the cost involved in introducing a new system and in adapting existing systems and – even more importantly – how each could help consumers, manufacturers, dealers and public authorities by providing better value for money.
Another question of great import that is currently under examination relates to the connection between any specific mark for consumers and all other markings, including the CE mark.
With regard to the matter of enhancing the credibility of the CE mark through more stringent checks on products from outside the EU, the Regulation on accreditation and market surveillance will make a major contribution to the resolution of that issue as soon as the Member States have transposed it. I believe it is particularly important to remember that people see product safety as an indicator of the credibility of the whole internal market project.
I wish to thank you all today for embracing this aim so wholeheartedly. The fact that this complex and sometimes very technical-looking package has been brought to a successful conclusion in such a short time is truly remarkable. This success is due to the extraordinary commitment of all parties, and I should like to express my special thanks to the rapporteurs, Mrs Schaldemose, Mr Brie and Mr Stubb.
The decision on a common legal framework for the marketing of products assumes particular importance in relation to future legislation. This decision sets standards that will apply to our future legislative acts. On the one hand, it is designed to guarantee a high level of safety, an aim reflected in provisions such as those on the accountability of importers. On the other hand, it will help to make the whole body of provisions more coherent, thereby making it easier for businesses to adhere to the rules in practice.
The first specific fruit of this decision has already been presented to Parliament in the form of the Toy Safety Directive which the Commission has already adopted. Other examples will follow shortly.
The Commission is more than happy with the political outcome that is emerging here today. I thank you for your active interest and your contributions, which have ensured that this package relating to one of the key European integration projects, namely the creation of a truly effective internal market, represents a genuine leap forward, taking the internal market to a new level of quality.
In this way, we are coming as close as possible to the complete realisation of the internal market. I use the term ‘as close as possible’ advisedly, because I wish to emphasise that there will never be full harmonisation of the European internal market, nor do I think we really want that. In view of the widely diverse traditions and needs of member countries of the European Union, a degree of latitude must also be maintained for the satisfaction of those needs and the preservation of those traditions.
We must strike a careful balance here, but, as I said, our provisions take us as close as is humanly possible to the complete realisation of the internal market. I believe that is another major contribution to more growth and employment in Europe and that it therefore provides another answer to those who ask how Europe is responding to the economic challenges of the 21st century.
I am very grateful to the three rapporteurs for paying tribute in their speeches to the leading role played by our departed colleague, Michel Ayral. He, in fact, was the architect of this package, and I must confess that I sometimes had the feeling he was the only one who fully understood it.
I also thank the Slovenian Presidency for making this project one of the priorities of its agenda. The fact that we are able to adopt this package today is a fine feather in the cap of the Slovenian Presidency.
I would also be the first to admit that the quality of this comprehensive legislative package has been enhanced by its passage through Parliament, and I am pleased that this is the case. It is a textbook example of the way in which the European institutions are supposed to interact.
We are therefore able to present a package that will benefit all participants in the internal market – businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, and, above all, consumers.
The Regulation on mutual accreditation will make it easier in future for companies to market their products throughout Europe without stumbling over obstacles in the form of diverse national rules. All of us here are aware that these diverse national rules are very often historically rooted in nothing other than pure protectionism. In this respect the main winners will be small businesses, for it is they that experience the greatest difficulty in surmounting these administrative obstacles.
This last aspect, in my view, is particularly important in the context of the general political situation. We now have more than 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, in Europe. They account for 99% of all European businesses. Indeed, there are only 44 000 firms in the whole of Europe that do not fall into the category of small and medium-sized enterprises.
What is rather surprising is the fact that only 8% of our businesses export beyond their national borders, whether within the European internal market or further afield. In other words, more than 90% of all our European firms confine themselves to their domestic markets and make no use whatsoever of the benefits offered by the internal market. I do believe one of the main reasons is that the day-to-day application of the rules governing the internal market poses too many practical problems. That is precisely the point from which our proposals proceeded."@en1
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