The EU machinery industry warns that its competitiveness is at risk from the EU’s continued failure to introduce an effective market surveillance system. Although it has lots of rules about machinery, it does not police them. European manufacturers comply but, they say, many non-compliant machines are entering the market without sanction.
European machinery producers want the system policed to ensure fair competition.
A draft Regulation on the Market Surveillance of Products (MSR) is now before the European Parliament but progress on it has been paralysed by a failure among EU Member States to reach agreement on a related topic, the marking of origin. There is now virtually no chance that the MSR proposal will be adopted in the current parliamentary term before April.
Representing the EU machinery alliance*, Filip Geerts said: “Our industries are the collateral victims of a political deadlock in the Council on a subject that is actually not related to market surveillance. Meanwhile, non-compliant products in the single market continue to harm industrial competitiveness. This does not only hold back industry’s growth potential, but also harms users’ safety, the environment as well as progress to meet the EU’s energy and climate targets. This is an unacceptable situation in light of the fact that it comes only days after European Commission’s Communication on an Industrial Renaissance was meant to make industrial competitiveness a top EU priority.”
Despite the fact that the European Parliament’s Internal Market Committee already adopted its report on the MSR proposal in October last year, member states have still not managed to agree on a common negotiation position. This is due to a fundamental disagreement over the marking of origin – a provision included in the draft Regulation on General Product Safety (GPSR). Since the MSR and GPSR proposals were bundled in one single legislative package, the destiny of the MSR is linked to member states reaching an agreement on this provision.
If negotiations do not resume, the European Parliament is likely to vote on the dossier in plenary in April 2014. However, a lack of agreement between Member States will make it extremely difficult to find a compromise between the two co-legislators. In the best case, the adoption of the proposal will be deferred to the end of 2014.
* The EU machinery alliance comprises:
- CECE, the Committee of European Construction Equipment
- CECIMO, the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries
- CEMA, the European association representing agricultural machinery
- EUROMAP, Europe's Association for plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers
- FEM, the European Materials Handling Federation.
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