Press release – Market surveillance: European machinery industry’s competitiveness must not become collateral victim of deadlock over “marking of origin”

06 February 2014

Brussels, 6 February 2014 – The EU machinery industry warns that its competitiveness could suffer a serious setback from the EU’s continued failure to introduce a better market surveillance system – a system considered essential to fight unfair competition in the Single Market caused by the entry and circulation of non-compliant products. As continuing discord between EU Member States on another topic – the marking of origin – has paralyzed any further progress on the draft Regulation on the Market Surveillance of Products (MSR), chances that the proposal will still be adopted in the current parliamentary term before April have now virtually dropped to zero.

Representing the EU machinery alliance (CECE, CECIMO, CEMA, EUROMAP and FEM), 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.”

Restoring the level playing field in the Single Market through an improved market surveillance system will enable a shift from price competition to a competition on quality, reliability and resource-efficiency, which is a pre-requisite for the success of Europe’s high-value added industries amidst global competitive pressures.

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 invariably linked to Member Sates 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.

About CECE, CECIMO, CEMA, FEM and EUROMAP

CECE
The Committee of European Construction Equipment (www.cece.eu) is the recognised organisation representing and promoting the European construction equipment and related industries in order to achieve a fair competitive environment via harmonised standards and regulations. CECE is a European network consisting of a secretariat in Brussels and national association offices in 14 different European countries. The industry behind CECE comprises 1,200 companies. In 2012, these equipment manufacturers had a total turnover of 25 billion € and employed 130,000 people directly. European construction machines represent around 25% of the worldwide production. Manufacturers include large European and multinational companies with production sites in Europe, but the majority of companies are small or medium-sized.
Contact: Ralf Wezel, Secretary General, ralf.wezel@cece.eu

CECIMO
CECIMO is the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries. We bring together 15 national Associations of Machine Tool Builders, which represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe*, over 80% of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers 98% of total Machine Tool production in Europe and about 34% worldwide. It accounts for almost 150,000 employees and a turnover of over €22 billion in 2012. More than 83% of CECIMO production is shipped abroad, whereas almost half of it is exported outside Europe*. For more information visit www.cecimo.eu *Europe = EU + EFTA + Turkey
Contact: Filip Geerts, Director General, filip.geerts@cecimo.eu

CEMA
CEMA is the European association representing the agricultural machinery industry. For 50 years CEMA has acted as a network of national associations and provides services, advice and a common European industry view on relevant topics. The industry represented by CEMA includes 4,500 manufacturers of agricultural equipment employing directly 135,000 persons and indirectly in the distribution and service network another 125,000 persons. The companies are mainly small and medium-sized manufacturers according to the EU definition and in 2011 had a total turnover of 26 billion euro.
Contact: Ulrich Adam, Secretary General, sg@cema-agri.org

EUROMAP
Europe's Association for plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers is a major European industry with almost 3,700 companies which together have an annual turnover of more than 17 billion EURO and about 100,000 employees. EUROMAP covers the plastics and rubber machinery manufacturing industries in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Contact: Thorsten Kühmann, Secretary General, EUROMAP euromap@vdma.org

FEM
Created in 1953, the European Materials Handling Federation (www.fem-eur.com) represents, defends and promotes European manufacturers of materials handling, lifting and storage equipment. FEM speaks for 15 members representing some 1,000 companies (mostly SMEs) employing 160,000 people directly and with an annual turnover of more than €50 billion (2011).
Contact: Olivier Janin, Secretary General, olivier.janin@orgalime.org