07.11.2011 News: Market Surveillance: CECE Welcomes the Commission Initiative
The European Commission will organise a conference in Brussels on 24th November 2011 to discuss market surveillance concerning machinery. CECE supports this action with an industry platform and technical guides for the authorities.
As CECE has highlighted many times in the past, the European construction equipment sector in its daily business, faces economic disadvantage and has a major problem when it comes to “fair competition” in the EU.
Industry has been asking authorities to ensure a fair level of competition in Europe with enforced controls at the borders and on the market. This would ensure safety of products and respect the environment, which can only be possible if market surveillance is duly implemented and illegal products are kept out of the EU.
In May-June 2011 the CECE Trade Policy Commission decided to conduct a survey among manufacturers, dealers and rental companies to understand how significant the problem was. The results showed that 52% of the participants see this problem as a source of concern affecting their business, and 1 out of 3 interviewed companies face losses in sales because customers opt for non-compliant machines instead of their products.
Finally, the European Commission has decided to take some actions and is organizing a Conference on Market surveillance concerning the machinery sector in Brussels on 24th November 2011.
Two speakers of the European construction equipment sector will be present at the conference, Eric Amstutz (Caterpillar) and Thomas Lyckvall (Chairman of the CECE Trade Policy Commission).
Representatives of the national governments, the Commission, the European Parliament and the industry are attending the conference, 300 people are expected to register.
The programme foresees several panels in which issues such as the competitiveness of the industry, the protection of innovation and some best practices applied in other continents and/or initiated by the industry will be addressed.
In addition, a manifesto with 10 recommendations for enhancing market surveillance will be signed by the representatives of the 7 federations on behalf of their members. The detailed programme of the conference is available online.
Some of the concerned sectors of the mechanical engineering industry decided from their side, to undertake some actions to support the Commission initiative. Seven European mechanical engineering associations, including CECE, set up a common task force and web platform on market surveillance.
The web platform (http://machinery-surveillance.eu) is a joint initiative of the European machinery industries to show their clear commitment to help improve market surveillance for capital goods in the EU. It is designed to serve as a resource database consisting of technical documents from European machinery industries. This information is specifically targeting authorities but also customers of the machinery industry to encourage them not to purchase illegal products.
All documents and guides are available in several languages from each sector. Also articles published at national level on the same subject will be visible on the platform as well as other relevant information about market surveillance. The famous CECE guides on excavators, compact excavators, loaders and tower cranes are of course uploaded on the web platform. In addition, the website is enriched with testimonials (videos) from industrialists and a brochure advertising the platform has also been designed and published.
An advertisement EU media campaign has also been launched by the relevant industries in order to increase, as much as possible, the visibility of the conference and web platform of the industry which is intended for the authorities.
“Market surveillance must play a crucial role to maintain fair competition, keep Europe as a strategic manufacturing location and ensure the effectiveness of the rules that protect health and safety of workers and the environment” says CECE Secretary General Ralf Wezel.
“This conference is a very important step forward. Although Member States remain responsible for market surveillance, it is clear that some coordination and stimulus should come from Brussels as well. We hope that the same cooperation that we achieved among the different industry sectors on this issue will also be possible with the national authorities in the future. We see it as the core solution to keep Europe safe, green, innovative and competitive.
CECE
www.cece.eu
