Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and the European Economic and the Social Committee. More product safety and better market surveillance in the single market for products

Europe is still struggling to overcome the worst of the economic recession and to restore growth and jobs. The EU 2020 Strategy is designed to haul Europe out of recession through smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, leading to higher levels of employment. The single market must play a large part in achieving this objective.

The free movement of goods is the most highly developed of the four ‘freedoms’ that make up the single market. Around 75% of intra-EU trade is in goods. In today’s single market for goods, it is easy to buy and sell products in 27 Member States with a total population of more than 503 million. Consumers have a wide choice and are able to shop around for the best offers. The free movement of goods is also vital to the success of thousands of EU businesses.

We have free movement of goods in the Union because, for most products, we have managed to agree on the extent to which we should protect at Union level various public interests that could otherwise be invoked by Member States to justify barriers to goods entering (or leaving) their territories. So-called ‘harmonisation legislation’ specifies essential requirements that products must meet to benefit from free movement. Legislation on general product safety requires consumer products to be safe when made available on the Union market. In the absence of harmonisation legislation, the Treaty applies in accordance with the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, particularly that relating to the principle of mutual recognition.

The most significant (but not the only) public interest invoked is the protection of the health and safety of persons, which in the context of free movement of goods signifies the consumer. Safe products move freely. So, product safety rules and the market surveillance that underpins them are the basis of the single market for goods. If we want the full economic benefit of the single market for goods, we need a set of high standards and rules on the safety of products sold and an effective, well-coordinated, Union-wide market surveillance system to underpin it. Safer and more compliant products will also contribute to safer, better performing services throughout the Union and will foster their cross-border provision, thereby contributing to the achievement of a more integrated single market for services.

The Commission has adopted the Product Safety and Market Surveillance Package of measures which will simplify and make more uniform the safety rules applying to non-food products, streamline market surveillance procedures and better coordinate and monitor the carrying out of market surveillance activities in the EU.

The Package consists of
- A proposal for a new Regulation on Consumer Products Safety
- A proposal for a single Regulation on Market Surveillance for Products
- A Communication on Safer and compliant products for Europe, setting out a multi-annual plan for market surveillance
- A Report on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, including a financial evaluation.

ESO: Background information: Safer products and a level playing field in the internal market http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-safer-products-and-a-level-playing-field-in-the-internal-market/

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)74: Follow the progress of this communication through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:074:FIN

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