Brussels, 29/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament is following a steady course in its internal market committee towards the labelling of imported textile products, which it wants to become compulsory.
The European Parliament's internal market committee is refusing to restrict the draft regulation to simple technical aspects on textile products. It wants to ensure that product labelling occurs at a Community level and that this labelling provides information on the origin of the product, the presence of non textile animal derived products and the percentage of the different fibres used. The vote in the second reading of the internal market committee has therefore maintained most of the amendments introduced by the Parliament during the first reading. This includes a revision clause for possible new labelling rules, which were not included by the Council during the first reading. The draft proposal to simplify existing textile labelling rules was presented in January 2009. It is aimed at cutting the time required for marketing new fibres and facilitating the legislative process and adapting it to technical progress. This involves a recasting of directives 73/44/EEC, 96/73/EC and 96/74/EC into a single regulation.
The text adopted on 24 March calls for compulsory labelling on textile and imported products. For products manufactured in the EU, labelling of the product origin will be voluntary but it will have to respond to clear rules, in order to avoid declarations giving rise to misinformation. The rapporteur, Toine Manders, considers that the current absence of harmonised rules, leaves the EU with a disadvantage with regard to its main trade partners such as Canada, the US, China and Japan, which all label imported goods. A textile product is only considered as coming from an EU member state if it has undergone at least two of the following manufacturing processes: spinning, weaving, finishing and conditioning, confirms the parliamentary committee.
The presence of non-textile animal derived substances in the textiles should also be indicated. Consumers should be informed about the total composition of the product, in percentage terms for products consisting of several different fibres. Textile fibre indications should if necessary be replaced by codes that can be used in all languages or combined with these codes. Self-employed textile workers working at home or managing their own businesses will be exempt. The Manders report will be submitted to a vote at the plenary assembly in May. (E.H./trans.fl)