Yesterday, S&Ds led a coalition in the internal market and consumer protection committee aiming at ensuring the safety of products across the European Union. Under the new framework, member states will have to provide enhanced market surveillance for products available on the market and for online products. The report on mutual recognition guarantees that safe and lawfully marketed goods will be mutually recognised in other member states.

 

 

“The health and safety of European citizens is an S&D priority and thus of paramount concern for us. We cannot accept that their safety be compromised by products that do not meet the requirements for safety or consumer information. In 2017, the European rapid alert system for dangerous products received 2,200 notifications of dangerous and non-compliant products, 83% of which posed a serious risk to consumers. We cannot allow this to happen again! We need to make sure that there are rules and mechanisms in place that render a repetition impossible.

 

“This is the aim of the ‘product safety’ report voted yesterday. We managed to introduce a common approach to market surveillance in order to ensure that the same rules are applied in the same way by different market surveillance authorities across the EU. Moreover, we achieved that there be better cooperation and coordination among different authorities. Under the provisions of the regulation, manufacturers are required to designate a ‘reference person’ in order to make products available on the market. Lastly, we ensured that surveillance extends also to online products and counterfeited products.”

 

 

“Yesterday’s vote provides a significant improvement to the application of the principle of mutual recognition in the internal market without giving a blank cheque for businesses. Until now, safe products could be denied or restricted market access in other countries. The report will facilitate the recognition of safe and lawfully marketed goods and ease their placement on the market of any other member state, thereby achieving an equal playing field for all businesses.”

 

“Thanks to the provisions of the report, businesses and national authorities will benefit of increased legal certainty. Moreover, it sets up an administrative cooperation to enable the exchange of information and the application of the principle of mutual recognition. Most importantly, the new regulation will apply to consumer goods that are not or are partially covered by EU common requirements on how products have to be manufactured.”