Horizontal

What way forward for Market Surveillance?

On 19 April, ANEC/BEUC published a joint position paper on the European Commission’s proposal to improve compliance with Union harmonisation legislation for products and its enforcement (‘market surveillance and compliance’).

Although the proposal puts forward notable improvements, it contains deficiencies which need to be addressed. Our main concern is the limitation of the improved surveillance & enforcement provisions to only harmonised products. Speaking at the British Chamber of Commerce on 26 April, ANEC Secretary-General Stephen Russell said this would lead to inconsistencies whereby the safety of a doll’s cot was considered of higher priority than the safety of a child’s bed.

Moreover, we want to see better traceability rules to identify the producer and retailer, and more focus on online commerce and risks arising from internet-connected products. We also continue to advocate creation of a genuine and comprehensive EU accident and injuries database as tool to help assess the need for regulations and standards, and then measuring their impacts. The present European Injury Database (IDB) is insufficient.

The position paper, including our recommendations, is available here.

30 years of ETSI

On 17-18 April, over 150 participants from 33 countries celebrated the 30^th anniversary of ETSI’s first General Assembly meeting during its 71^st meeting in Sophia Antipolis. Four Fellowships were awarded in recognition of contributions to the work of ETSI.

John Ketchell, ANEC representative in the General Assembly and the ETSI 3SI Advocate, took the opportunity to emphasise the importance of looking forward to a more inclusive future, and stressed our wishes to ensure security, data protection and accessibility. He welcomed the adoption of the 3SI Programme and the chance to report to each meeting of the General Assembly on issues affecting societal stakeholders & SMEs. He also drew attention to the ANEC/BEUC report on the cybersecurity of connected products.

ANEC has been a member of ETSI since December 1996.

Draft AUWP 2019

ANEC has published its preliminary views on the draft Annual Union Work Programme (AUWP) for European Standardisation 2019. We comment on the inclusiveness of the European Standardisation System and international cooperation; Artificial Intelligence; Autonomous cars and CO₂ emission standards for cars, vans and heavy-duty vehicles; and the Circular Economy. We also propose Standardisation Requests in the areas of the Internet of Things and accessibility.

Read our position here.

Dual quality of products

On 28 February, the European Parliament’s Internal Market & Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) published its draft report on the dual-quality of products in the Single Market. Although welcoming the report, we believe the role consumer organisations play in ensuring the fair functioning of the Single Market needs to be stressed. Hence, we propose to increase European and national public funding to help consumer organisations in their product testing and comparison activities.

In addition, we recommend explicit reference to ISO/IEC Guide 46 ‘Comparative testing of consumer products and related services – General principles’ as the basis for creation of common European methodologies for non-food products by the Joint Research Centre. We also propose to define what should be classified as a dual quality product, and how to assess and evaluate each case.

The position paper is available here.

Child Safety

Requirements for monomers

ANEC presented a draft position paper on monomers to the May meeting of the subgroup on chemicals, established under the European Commission’s Toy Safety Expert Group. In a German opinion of 2017, following a statement from the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), it was proposed "to derive substance-specific limits for the carcinogenic monomers on the basis of risk assessments and to include these limits in Appendix C of the Toys Safety Directive".

BfR identified 20 monomers with carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic (CMR) properties listed in Annex I of the Commission Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food, and showed the general CMR limits in the Toy Safety Directive to be insufficient in several cases. ANEC expert Dr Franz Fiala screened the monomers regarding their probability to be present in toys and identified five substances to be restricted as a matter of priority. Content limits are proposed for four non-threshold CMR substances (vinyl chloride, 1,3-butadiene, acrylonitrile and acrylamide) following the SCHER opinion that the presence of such substances, as intentionally-added components in toys, be excluded using sensitive analytical methods. In our position paper, we propose a migration limit for styrene and conclude other of the 20 monomers may need further investigation.

Accessibility

The rights of guide dog users

24 April was the International Guide Dog Day which celebrates the role guide dogs play in enabling people with impaired vision to get around safely and independently. In order to raise awareness of the discrimination guide dogs and their owners continue to face in society, ANEC representative Judith Jones (European Guide Dog Federation) published an article on the rights of assistance dog users which she is pleased to share.

Domestic Appliances

‘Be Safe This Summer’!

In 2017, ANEC welcomed the adoption of EN 1860-1/A1 “Appliances, solid fuels and firelighters for barbecuing – Part 1: Barbecues burning solid fuels - Requirements & test methods”. We participated in the development of this amendment, which introduces a safety symbol to warn consumers not to use a barbeque indoors because of the risk of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Some consumers use barbecue grills to heat a tent or caravan, or to cook in case of rain.

On 27 April, we launched the leaflet, ‘Be Safe This Summer’, to help educate children and young adults on the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning, and to warn that ‘Misuse of a BBQ grill can kill!’. The leaflet is available in English, French, Romanian, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Russian, and can be found on the campaign page, which also details other ANEC activities related to the prevention of CO poisoning.

Please help us spread the word.

New European Standards for fairground and amusement park equipment

We welcome adoption by CEN of three European Standards for amusement rides and devices. EN 13814-1 ‘Safety of amusement rides and amusement devices - Part 1: Design and manufacture’; EN 13814-2 ‘Safety of amusement rides and amusement devices - Part 2: Operation, maintenance and use’; and EN 13814-3 ‘Safety of amusement rides and amusement devices - Part 3: Requirements for inspection during design, manufacture, operation and use’ are the result of the revision of EN 13814 ‘Fairground and amusement park machinery and structures – Safety’. The old standard was adopted in 2004 despite strong opposition from ANEC. We found the safety levels provided by the standard to be unacceptable. We welcome that the revision takes into account many of our concerns in the publication of the three new standards.

Nevertheless, ANEC remains concerned about the lack of a European legal framework for fairground and amusement park equipment as serious accidents continue to happen.

Eco-design

European Parliament wants more ambitious Eco-design

On April 25, the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) adopted a report on implementation of the Eco-design directive. The report, from MEP Frédérique Ries, contains many good elements, such as the need to extend the scope of the directive to more consumer products - including smartphones - and to look systematically into the durability, reparability, recyclability and upgradability of products.

Furthermore, our long-standing wish for requirements on use of hazardous substances to be set when designing products is acknowledged. Most of our recommendations – as summarised in our position paper – have been reflected. We will therefore encourage the plenary of the Parliament to adopt the report in June.

Material Efficiency and Performance

ANEC and ECOS continue to work together in standards work related to the Eco-design and Energy Labelling directives. Work in CEN-CENELEC TC 10, on material efficiency aspects for Eco-design, has continued over the past months. Secretariat enquiries are open on two draft standards in the areas of durability and reparability. The volume of work is considerable, comprising 10 deliverables with a final deadline of March 2019.

We are also following the progress of the Eco-design of products in the work of CENELEC TC 59X ‘Performance of household and similar electrical appliances’. In WG1 ‘Laundry appliances’, there will be dedicated discussion of the draft regulation, expected to have an update published by June 2018. ANEC will continue to participate in the progress of these Eco-design standards.

Sustainability

Revised Drinking Water Directive

In February, the European Commission published the awaited proposal for a revised Drinking Water Directive (DWD). The proposal aims to improve the quality of drinking water and provide better information to citizens, by updating the 20-year-old Directive, 98/83/EC. ANEC has been contributing during the past four years to an evaluation of the directive, suggesting the revision provides an opportunity to address chemical safety of all materials coming into contact with drinking water, from source to the tap. We have also given recommendations on parameters to monitor water quality, and information to be made available to consumers. As noted in the recent plastics strategy, the proposal also intends to contribute to the reduction of use of plastic bottles, by increasing the confidence of citizens in the safety of tap water.

We think the envisaged way forward as regards materials in contact with drinking water to be inadequate. Although the proposal includes improvements regarding parameters covered and related thresholds, there may still be gaps. Moreover, despite consultations showing the need to address the so-called "emerging" pollutants or contaminants, only a few substances have been added.

Read our position here.

Digital Society

ICT Rolling Plan 2018

The ICT Standardisation Rolling Plan 2018 is now available online. It aims to bridge EU policies and standardisation activities in the ICT field, allowing for increased convergence of the efforts of standardisers towards European policy goals. The plan was developed with the aid of the Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) on ICT Standardisation in which we are active.

Smart meters and grids

Consumer centric approach in Energy R&I programmes

On 18 April, ANEC participated in the Workshop on Consumer centric approach in Energy R&I programmes, organised by DG ENER. ANEC Programme Officer for Policy & Innovation, Kristina Aleksandrova, presented our activities and spoke about the challenges for consumers in a changing energy environment.

She noted that ANEC highlights potential impacts of smart energy systems on consumers and mentioned key consumer issues that should be taken into account. She referred to ANEC’s work in the area of smart meters where we focus on the consumer challenges to be addressed in standardisation (such as access to consumption data, interoperability, privacy and data security).

Participants concluded that a consumer-driven energy transition is a unique opportunity for the optimisation of energy assets. Unfortunately, there are difficulties to overcome, such as complexity; need for definition and segmentation of consumers (aggregation); need for common KPIs and standardisation. Nevertheless, there was consensus on the importance of strengthening consumer engagement in the energy market.

Services

ANEC Services WG meeting

On 18-19 April, the ANEC Services WG met in Brussels for its annual meeting. Our experts discussed achievements and challenges in standards work on health, care and support; digital, financial and postal services, and tourism.

A training to review the common elements of services, including privacy and security, was led by WG Chair, Julie Hunter. It went on to identify the impact of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on standards for tourism, health and e-commerce.

Our thanks to Test-Achats for having hosted the meeting.

Tourism and related services

With more and more people travelling every year, extra effort is required to ensure the high-quality provision of services in the tourism industry. Standards for terminology and specifications offered by service providers to consumers are key to the tourism industry in adapting to increased expectations. Furthermore, it is necessary to have transparency, quality and promotion of tourist activities. These were the goals behind the creation of ISO/TC 228 ‘Tourism and related services’. ANEC has been active in this TC, notably in the areas of ‘Accessible Tourism’ and ‘Health Tourism Services’.

The new ISO/TC 228 WG 15 on ‘Accommodation’ has approved a work item that aims to standardise the minimum quality requirements for service provision to be achieved by hotels, regardless of the size of the hotel or its star classification. The first meeting of WG 15 took place last October and was attended by ANEC. The initial draft should be published after the ISO/TC 228 Plenary meeting in Buenos Aires on 7-11 May in which ANEC will also participate.

Traffic & Mobility

MSTyr15

The Market Surveillance Action for Tyres 2015 (MSTyr15), an H2020-funded project, covers regulations relating to tyres and their labelling. Launched in April 2016, MSTyr15 focuses on passenger car tyres. The programme runs until June 2018. So far, thousands of inspections of tyres have been organised, as well as tests for energy efficiency (rolling resistance) and safety (wet grip). Fifteen market surveillance authorities from the EU and Turkey are taking part in the project under the coordination of PROSAFE. ANEC is a stakeholder in the Advisory Board.

Regarding Work Package 5 – the inspection and testing of tyres – the results of the tests and inspection of almost 12.000 tyres were presented at a meeting in April. The testing comprised three actions: on-site and online inspections for correct labelling; inspection of technical documentation; and the performance testing of tyres.

In more than 500 cases, the tyre label was not compliant, not visible, or not available in the shop or online. This demonstrates there is need to enforce the provision of the label to consumers, and raise the awareness of consumers about their right to make informed choices based on the label when they buy a tyre.

The final meeting of the MSTyr15 project will be held on 30 May 2018.

For comments or if you wish to write an article for the ANEC Newsletter, please contact:  Ieva GALKYTÉ (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).