Call for the withdrawal of the Product Safety and Market Surveillance Package

Orgalime which represents as a whole European engineering industries had called on the European Commission for an initiative to step-up the enforcement of EU legislation through effective market surveillance and, thereby to further improve both the competitive environment for European manufacturers, as well as consumer safety. 

 

The Commission Proposals for Regulations on Market Surveillance for Products (MSPR) and Consumer Product Safety (CPSR), which we generally supported, aimed to achieve this. However the result of the legislative process so far is not adding anything useful to the existing framework. Worse, still, is that what were originally meant to be Regulations to help European manufacturers are fast becoming the opposite. 

 

Therefore, in line with the Better Regulation priorities of the new Commission, we call for the withdrawal and reassessment of the Commission Proposals for Regulations on Market Surveillance for Products (MSPR) and Consumer Product Safety (CPSR). 

From the outset, Orgalime has called for proportionality and legal clarity in the revision of the GPSD and warned against a full alignment with the Decision 768/2008. However, since the CPSR and the MSPR proposals were tabled, both have drifted even further away from their original objective, at both the level of the European Parliament and Council.

 

In Orgalime’s view the Regulations, if adopted in this form, will not lead to safer products on the market, but instead to increased burdens for serious economic operators. Actual consumer safety could only be obtained through the actual completion of physical checks on products placed on the market. Legitimate European manufacturers deserve a better framework to contribute to President Juncker’s priorities for job, growth and investment.