Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-037"
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"en.20080219.5.2-037"2
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"Madam President, these reports seek to improve regulation of the market in products, especially by tightening up recognition of the CE label and banning misuse of the label. All this is good, but in my contribution to this debate I am going to divert a little to an aspect that is overlooked by these reports but which I feel is highly relevant to the discussion on products.
The aim of the various proposed measures is to encourage people to buy products and, when they buy, to purchase European ones. How can we square this encouragement of increased consumerism with the need to use resources wisely? That is, to understand that these must be shared, not just globally but with future generations?
Some Member States are primarily concerned with building their economies, but for others the issue of responsible environmental stewardship ranks with trade. Those countries are seeking ways to square the circle of competitive trade and maintain a good, sustainable standard of life and product usage. Energy efficiency, use of recyclables and low-toxicity materials are all a step in the right direction, but an important addition is the elimination of planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is the deliberate creating of products that will not last and that are not repairable.
When I bought my first microwave I deliberately bought a good one that would last. It lasted two years. When I brought it back I was told it was not worth repairing and that there was no one to repair it. So I bought another good one. It lasted two years. Now I buy a new microwave every year – the cheapest I can find – and it is then thrown away.
We have to be careful with our harmonisation that we leave responsible countries the option to ban products that have built-in planned obsolescence, and that we encourage countries only to allow in products that will last and are repairable, because it is those countries which are stuck with mountains of waste at the end of the cycle."@en1
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