Brussels, 10/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - After having waived a number of reservations of a technical kind, the Competitiveness Council managed, on Monday, to reach a general guideline on the proposal for revision of the Community legislation on electromagnetic compatibility. Ministers also managed to clear the way for the proposal on unfair trade practices of companies towards consumers, which opens the road for progress on this issue during a forthcoming Council session.
The proposal of directive on electromagnetic compatibility aims to review the Community legislation in this respect, which dates back to 1989. The aim of the review is to simplify regulatory procedures for manufacturers (doing away with certain kinds of behaviour and hence cutting costs) while strengthening information and documentation on the product in order to give extra control means to the monitoring authorities (hence better traceability of the product). The general guidelines reached by the ministers will only be changed into a political agreement once the opinion of the European Parliament is known (first regarding).
The Fifteen also examined the proposal of directive on unfair trading practice. The text recommends complete harmonisation regarding misleading and aggressive practice that is detrimental to the economic interests of consumers and the mutual recognition of national rules in this field. Speaking to the press, the European Commissioner for Consumer Policy, David Byrne, pointed out that the Council had reached an agreement on two points that had hitherto been obstacles to completing the dossier, namely application of monitoring by the countries of origin and the idea of "average consumer". The Council has still to receive the opinion of the European Parliament, which is not expected until April 2004, in order to formally finalise a common position.