Workshop on laying down rules on nominal quantities for prepacked products. Organised of European Commission – TAIEX – In co-operation with Serbian Chamber of Commerce June

Aim of the meeting The aim of this event is to introduce the responsibilities of the industries/prepackers regarding the Directives 2007/45/EC & 76/211/EEC. At the same time will be introduced the responsibilities of the individual Member State – at the same time covering responsibilities to those countries having actual agreements with EC.

Experience of the MS in introducing and implementing of Directice 76/211/EEC and Directive 2007/45/EC The experience from daily work in Denmark shows, that the use of the e-mark for Danish producers seems to ensure the appropiate content in prepackages. The results achieved after a special investigation 1999 (co-operation between three Nordic countries) stand still. One of the problems according to the mentioned report was the labelling, which in more than 50% of the cases showed incorrect labelling.

Experience of the MS in introducing the e-marking Directives. The experience – co-operating in WELMEC, WG6 – has shown, that there are differences in interpreting the content of the e-marking directives between Member States: Some countries read the directives, so that the packer or importer, who wants to use the e-mark, must apply for it, so that the authority can perform the reference test to evaluate, if the packer or importer meet the requirements. Other countries allow all the packers or the importers to use the e- mark, whereafter the MS tries to control, if the users of the e-mark meet the requirements. Some countries allow all packers and importers to e-mark ”without further” – afterwards performing checks randomly.

Experience in introducing the e-marking Directives Experience according to import from countries from outside EC. Here seem to be problems: Some importers do not have sufficient knowledge according to the requirements for the e-marked prepackages – and use wrong information from the exporter. Some importers do not care ”too much” about the rules - or the polite evaluation: do not have the nescessary information according to the rules.

Experience in introducing the e-marking Directives. The differences in interpretation of the directives lead to huge differences in the frequence of performing for example the reference test at the packers and the importers premesis. It too seems to lead to the result, that export of prepackages from countries outside the EC in general are under less supervision than prepackages produced within the EC.

Possible improvements according to use of the e-marking Directives Come to a common understanding of the Directives – among others during a closer ”assistance” from the EC in interpreting the Directives – for instans in the work done in WELMEC, WG6. Change of the Directives to be based on the New Approach Directive (instead of the Old Approach Directive) – at the same time changing the statistical approach to ”something more up- to-date”.

Possible improvements according to the use of the e-marking Directives. A proposal could be to change the legislation, as follows: Stop using the e-mark. Under the assumption that the content of the Directives is made ”up-to-date”, let the Directives become mandatory for all prepackages covered by the Directives. Perform an evaluation with the target to find out, if the handling of importers are made in the optimal manner by the existing Directives.

Lessons learned using the e-marking Directives. It has been difficult to come to a uniform understanding of how to implement the Directives in national legislation, even if great improvements are made during the work in WELMEC, WG6. The capacity to be able to perform control according to the reference method seems to be difficult to reach in many Member States.