Strasbourg, 17/11/2006 (Agence Europe) -In its adoption, on 14 November, by 599 votes in favour, 13 against and 25 abstentions, of the report by María Sornosa Martínez (PES, Spain) on the proposed directive aiming to ban the sales of objects containing mercury to the general public, the European Parliament (EP) has recommended the approach of the Commission, with one- major- exception: the MEPs decided to keep an amendment providing an exemption for barometers, which is likely to hold up the legislative process considerably.
Last February, the European Commission presented its proposal, which aims to ban sales of objects containing mercury, such as medical thermometers, manometers, barometers, sphygmomanometers (devices to measure blood pressure) and other instruments to measure ambient temperature (EUROPE 9136). Although the EP broadly supported this text, it nonetheless adopted (by 327 votes in favour, 227 against and a few abstentions) an amendment tabled by British Conservative member Martin Callanan (EPP-ED) and Dutch member Johannes Blokland (IND/DEM), stating that the restriction of sales on devices containing mercury should not apply to barometers. However, the amendment provides that the Member States will have to "put into place appropriate and effective provisions to authorise and control their sales, in order to guarantee that the objectives of the directive are not jeopardised". In its adoption of this amendment, therefore, the plenary session failed to go along with Ms Sornosa Martínez or the PES, ALDE, Greens or GUE/NGL groups, which had tried to negotiate with the Council with a view to finding an informal agreement at first reading.
More generally, the MEPs approved an exemption for all measuring devices more than 50 years old, to cover all "antiques" still in circulation. They also called on the Commission to carry out an assessment, within two years of the entry into force of the directive, into the "availability of safer and technically and economically feasible alternatives" to sphygmomanometers and other measuring devices containing mercury, and to "present, if necessary, a legislative proposal to extend the restrictions applicable to these instruments in the medical sector and for other professional and industrial uses". (ol)