Row looms over product safety

Date: 23/11/00

By Peter Chapman

EU MEMBER states are set to clash with the European Parliament over the use of the 'precautionary principle' in draft rules designed to ensure the safety of consumer products on sale in the Union.

The row comes as governments prepare to strike a deal next week on plans unveiled by Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne earlier this year. The proposed legislation will spell out more clearly producers' obligations to make sure only safe products are put on the market - and keep unsafe ones off it.

MEPs have called for the rules to go further, insisting that firms should be obliged to err on the side of caution when deciding whether to take goods off the market. This could, in theory, result in products being pulled off the shelves even if research was inconclusive as to the potential risks to health and safety or the environment.

But EU sources say member states will reject the Parliament's demands at a meeting of single market and consumer affairs ministers next Thursday (30 November) and side with Byrne, who argues that putting this obligation directly onto companies' shoulders is the wrong way to ensure product safety.

Byrne insists the 'precautionary principle' is a risk-management tool best wielded by authorities. Both he and member states want only a briefreference to the principle in the opening words of the directive.

The EU committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) in Brussels is leading industry's attack on the Parliament's stance on the issue.

The chairman of its task force on product safety, Brian Sheridan, insisted that rejection of the precautionary principle did not mean that companies were unconcerned about safety but that, in this case, it should only be used bypublic authorities. "We strongly support Commissioner Byrne that the use of the precautionary principle would not be appropriate in this context," he said.

Sheridan added that industry was now satisfied that other potential pitfalls had been avoided. Firms had been worried, for example, that the draft directive did not spell out how the regulations would affect industries which already had to comply with sector-specific rules. But they have been reassured that the Commission will publish a separate paper explaining exactly how the new rules would be applied.If governments reject the MEPs' demands, conciliation talks might be necessary to thrash out a compromise.

EU Member States are set to clash with the European Parliament over the use of the 'precautionary principle' in draft rules designed to ensure the safety of consumer products on sale in the Union.