IMCO vote on the EU product safety and market surveillance measures

With the recent vote in the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, steps were taken to bring the general safety of products more in line with the already stringent safety rules for toys. For instance, other consumer products will now be subject to the same traceability requirements that have already been in place for toys since the 2009 Toy Safety Directive came into force.

We believe manufacturers should take full responsibility for the safety of the products they put on the market. It is however regrettable that the impression given is that stricter legislation can somehow make up for reduced market surveillance caused by budgetary restrictions. Strict but workable legislation needs to go hand in hand with strong market surveillance. The Parliament’s suggestion for an ‘EU Safety Tested’ label makes no sense: it will be forged by those who do not take their responsibility seriously and will be an unnecessary extra cost for responsible manufacturers who have already taken all precautions to produce safe products. European citizens should be able to rely on a system that only allows safe products to be placed on the EU market and strong market surveillance is needed to ensure this.