Brussels, 26/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The view of this Thursday's Council that will gather, for the first time in a joint session, the Ministers responsible for the internal market and their counterparts responsible for consumer policy, the European Consumer's organisation (BEUC) wrote to the French Presidency to express its impatience for a "balanced discussion that will reflect the consumers interest as well as commercial interests" Below, for each of the consumers questions written into the agenda of the session, the concerns and desiderata of the BEUC:
Proposal to ban phthalates in toys. Expressing serious concerns over the safety of the most vulnerable European consumers that are children below three years of age, the BEUC calls on the Council to call on the precautionary principal to: a) support the immediate ban of ix incriminated phthalates; b) extend the ban to all toys and baby products that are "likely to be put in the mouth" (instead of limiting it, as the Commission proposed, only to articles "intended to be put in the mouth"); c) ensure that the alternative softeners for plastics used as substitutes for phthalates in toys, are the object of scientific analysis, without, for as much, this delaying the ban on the six phthalates; d) call on the Commission to examine the total volume of phthalates absorption in case of long-term exposure to these substances, as well as the consequences of such an exposure for the health of human beings, especially children.
Improve European food hygiene rules. Underlining that the new food safety principal proposed by the Commission is complete and enables to ensure the traceability of ingredients in the food chain by overcoming the shortcomings of the present legislation, the BEUC would like for this principal to be introduced in all the Member States as quickly as possible. Starting, it recommends to the Council to approve, without delay, the proposed regulation and insists on the following needs: a) establishing clearly defined responsibilities for each stage of the food chain; b) veterinary rules should be consistent before incorporation into hygiene rules; c) definitions and standards of the new hygiene rules should be consistent with those contained in other food legislation; d) since feedingstuffs will fall under the scope of the hygiene rules in 2004 only, measures should be envisaged to provide adequate consumer protection in the interim.
3. Consumers and the euro. Beuc considers that, although the euro will be in circulation in the very near term, there has been insufficient policy action to facilitate the smooth introduction for consumers, and that the latter stand little to gain in terms of immediate benefit. According to Beuc, there are two sufficient reasons for the Council to rapidly adopt decisions in order to ensure that: a) he cost and efficiency of cross-border payments in the euro zone should as a principle be the same as for domestic payments; b) exchanging existing euro-zone currencies into the new currency should be free of charge to the consumer, including those without bank accounts, for both coins and notes.