Brussels, 12/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has just published a summary of the "safety alerts" Member States of the EU are obliged to send it about dangerous non-food products, under the Community early warning system Rapex. This summary will be published every week on the Commission's Internet site, which will also carry quarterly statistics on Rapex notifications.
It is worth noting that Rapex was shored up by the new directive on general product safety (directive 2001/95/EC modifying directive 92/5/EC), which entered into force last January (see EUROPE of 16 January, p.9). Safety alerts for foodstuffs and animal feed are carried out via another early warning system.
In a press release, David Byrne, Commissioner of health and Consumer Protection, said: "one of the most important objectives of consumer protection policy is to protect consumers of all ages against shoddy, unsafe products. Providing information to the public about product hazards is essential to achieve this objective".
The first of these reports is available at the following address: http: //europa.eu.int/comms/consumers /cons_safe/prod_safe/gps/rapex_en.htm#overviews.