Commission recognises need for market surveillance

An acknowledgement by the European Commission of the importance of effective market surveillance is being welcomed by a number of European associations, including CECE, the Committee for European Construction Equipment.

The Commission included the market surveillance of machinery in the list of priorities outlined in the Communication on the Industrial Policy flagship initiative – A Stronger European Industry for Growth & Economic Recovery.

CECE president Johann Sailer said, "Machinery is specifically quoted as a sector where greater attention is needed. However, I call the legislator for not taking safety as the unique parameter in this exercise.”

Mr Sailer said, “Safety of users and workers is crucial, but compliance is, and should remain, our priority. A compliant product is definitely a safe one, while the contrary is not necessarily true.”

Along with CECE, CECIMO (the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries), CEMA (the European association representing the agricultural machine industry, EUROMAP (the umbrella organisation for the European plastics and rubber industry) and FEM (the European Materials Handling Federation) welcomed the Commission’s acknowledgement of the importance of effective market surveillance to support a competitive EU machinery industry.

In a joint statement, the associations said that whereas EU mechanical engineering was one of the most important providers of workplaces within the EU and significantly contributed to a sound current account balance, it was vital to protect its competitiveness.

CECIMO president Martin Kapp said that EU mechanical engineering had recently been described as one of the most shining examples of performance within the EU economy.

“EU institutions and Member States have a duty in allowing European manufacturers to maintain such a position,” he said.

Over the past few years, the EU machinery industry has been alerting decision-makers about the negative impact of ineffective market surveillance on the sector and the entire EU economy.

The industry associations have felt that the resulting proliferation of non-compliant equipment on the internal market generated safety and environmental risks, created unfair competition and hampered the competitiveness of European companies. They said this ultimately threatened the hundreds of thousands of jobs they provided.

Proactive

The industry has been proactive in addressing the issue, notably by providing technical assistance to competent authorities through the online Market Surveillance Support Platform, which was launched on the initiative of the industry in 2011.

CECE, CECIMO, CEMA, EUROMAP and FEM said they hoped that the strong message in the Industrial Policy flagship initiative will guide the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament in their efforts at drawing up a common framework for market surveillance in the upcoming Safety Package.

They said there was “an undeniable link between market surveillance and competitiveness, innovation, growth and jobs”. Therefore, they said, besides traditional product safety aspects, industrial policy and competitiveness objectives should be taken into account fully and incorporated into the new legislation.

Olivier Janin, secretary general of FEM, said, “We hope that the new framework for market surveillance will, in a focused manner, address the problems of machinery industries which have been neglected so far.

“The new legislative package should enable more targeted, co-ordinated and effective market surveillance across the EU with the involvement of market surveillance, customs authorities and industry.”

The associations are calling on DG Enterprise (the Commission’s relevant Directorate General) to take the lead and be ambitious in its proposal. They said that a mere merging of the General Product Safety Directive and regulation 765/2008 into one document would be an academic exercise which would not bring any benefit to the industry.

They felt that on the contrary, it had been recently acknowledged that there was a need to ensure fair competition and a level-playing field for all market operators. The Commission, and then the Parliament and Member States need to ensure that only compliant machines are sold in Europe, said the associations.