Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-24-Speech-2-467"
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"en.20090324.35.2-467"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to be able to inform the Members of the European Parliament that genuine progress has been made in harmonising mobile phone chargers in Europe.
I expect that the problem will automatically be resolved for other devices, such as digital cameras and MP3 players, once we have made the breakthrough with mobile phones. If that should not be the case, then legal intervention may also be required here.
The Commission continues to count on the valuable support of the European Parliament to resolve this irritating problem once and for all.
However, I would first like to thank Mr Cappato and Mr Manders for the commitment which they have brought to this problem, which is a daily reality for the citizens of Europe.
I fully agree with them that we must put an end to the ever-growing number of chargers and that it must in future be possible to charge mobile phones using a single, standardised charger. The hundreds of millions of useless chargers and adapters in Europe place a ridiculous burden on the environment and, at the same time, are an expensive irritation for consumers. Nowadays, anyone who changes their mobile phone generally needs a completely different charger. Even different models from the same manufacturer do not use a standardised charger.
This is not a new issue. However, it is important to realise that charging a mobile phone is not like filling a car with petrol; it is a technically more complex issue. A few years ago, the technology had not yet reached a level where complete harmonisation was possible, in particular because of safety risks. Mobile phones could overheat or even explode during the charging process.
In the meantime, these difficulties have been overcome and there are no technical reasons which would prevent harmonisation.
Therefore, I have taken specific steps to encourage the industry to bring a standard charger onto the market.
I am confident that the industry will act quickly. However, in our role as a European institution we must stay on the ball. We should under no circumstances exclude the possibility of introducing legal regulations. As you perhaps already know, at their most recent congress in Barcelona the network operators announced that from 2012 onwards it will be possible to charge the majority of the new mobile phones that they sell with a single standardised charger.
This is good, but it does not go far enough. The Commission would like to see complete harmonisation on the basis of a uniform standard and a binding undertaking from the industry to do this. The Commission expects the industry to produce a binding agreement in the form of a memorandum by the end of April. This memorandum should be signed by the major manufacturers of mobile phones and should ensure that every charger is capable of charging every mobile phone and that every mobile phone can be charged by every charger.
The Commission will not hesitate to make a legislative proposal if the industry does not introduce a voluntary agreement."@en1
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