Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-02-15-Speech-2-621-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20110215.30.2-621-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, I am grateful that a number of problems have been highlighted which are also the focus of our attention, because the honest truth is that products imported legally or illegally from outside the European Union are often counterfeit. Unfortunately, however, neither the Commission nor the Union’s institutions have customs agencies or police forces to check imports, so we have to trust the checks carried out by the various Member States when products bearing this mark enter the EU and are placed on the market.
Later, I will explain the details in order to answer Mr Higgins’s supplementary question, but I must make it clear that we have launched an information campaign designed not only to promote the CE mark, but also to ensure that the products are more guaranteed, by checking for counterfeit goods.
The suggestion of visiting the port of Rotterdam, which is where most toys arrive, is an idea that I have been nursing. I will probably go there myself in order to signal the fact that the Commission is focusing on checking products from outside the European Union that are coming in through one of its major ports.
I agree with the point that use of the CE mark needs to be encouraged. We are in the early stages, and I believe we should continue down this path. That is the purpose of the information campaign, which is also the result of a request made by Parliament. We achieved a lot when I was still a Member of the European Parliament by insisting on the need for the EU to have a mark that would primarily guarantee compliance with EU regulations. In fact, we should not forget that the CE mark is not a European quality mark, but it just means that certain EU rules have been complied with – a kind of self-certification, therefore, or third-party certification.
Some Members of this House hope that the CE mark will be followed by a quality mark and, in fact, Parliament pressed me on this at the hearing a year ago, when I put forward my candidacy for the Commission. I am certainly not against the idea, but I think we first need to encourage and increase the use of the CE mark by means of the information campaign within the EU. Even more needs to be done, and in the next stage, we need to think about further new initiatives. First of all, however, we must ensure that the CE mark becomes common practice for all EU companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, which probably require more information.
I assure you that I am committed to ever better information. I am delighted that there are debates and questions like these – and I thank Mr Higgins for them – because they spur on the debate through the work of the European Parliament and of its individual Members and the work of both the Commissioner and the representative offices of the Commission and Parliament in the European Union.
It is vital to inform the individual Member States and business organisations of the importance of using this instrument, just as it is crucial – and I have already emphasised this in my speech – to put pressure on the Member States to maintain strict vigilance, both at the borders and within the market, in order to stamp out, or at least to try to curtail, the problem of counterfeiting and the unlawful use of the CE mark, for the sake of protecting our products and ensuring compliance with EU laws, which, above all, defend the interests of consumers."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples