Strasbourg, 22/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - Retabling the amendments adopted in first reading and reintroducing the initial draft of the proposal on general product safety was what the Rapporteur (Ms Laura González Álvarez (GUE/NGL, Spain)) and the EP's Environment Committee called on the European Parliament to do with regards to the Common Position adopted by the Council in February 2001 on this Directive. The Common Position was considered to be lacking in teeth but the Rapporteur did not manage to win over the majority of her fellow MEPs at the plenary session on Wednesday.
In its Common Position of 12 February 2001 on the draft Directive on general product safety, the Council ignored the amendments adopted on first reading by the European Parliament (see EUROPE of 17 November 2000), and notably those on the safety of services, the precautionary principle, the surveillance of products and the European Product Safety Network. The EU introduced new measures on export bans for dangerous products that water down the bans, allowing some decisions to be considered on their own merits, which Laura González Álvarez sees as contradicting the whole point of the Directive (to harmonise Member State's legislation authorising the sale of safe products). At its 25 April meeting, the EP's Consumer Affairs Committee supported the Rapporteur's desire to retable the initial draft proposal and restore the amendments made in the first reading.
The plenary session did not support the Rapporteur and rejected most of the tabled amendments. The European Commission was, however, invited to put forward proposals on the safety of services by 1 January 2003. Another amendment that was adopted demands that the competent authorities be guided by the precautionary principle.