MEPs’ plans to tighten up single market product safety rules and market surveillance include mandatory "made-in" labelling to improve the traceability of non-food goods, a sharper focus on goods that appeal to kids, an EU blacklist of firms that repeatedly breach EU safety rules and tougher penalties for selling dangerous goods.
On 15 April, Parliament will put a mandate to negotiate these plans with member states to a first reading vote.
The "product safety package" proposed by the European Commission in February 2013 consists of two draft regulations, on product safety and market surveillance. These would lay down basic safety requirements for goods and govern their enforcement, so as to provide a general safety net for consumers.
They would also make product safety rules easier to comply with EU-wide and make market surveillance more effective, so as to meet the challenges posed by the global market, including the growing range and number of goods imported to the EU and circulating on the single market.
These draft regulations are to replace the current General Product Safety Directive and to amend Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 on accreditation and market surveillance.