Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Decision introducing a Community system of information on home and leisure accidents (94/C 104/04) (Text with EEA relevance) COM(94) 17 final - 94/0031(COD)

(Submitted by the Commission on 7 March 1994)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 129a (2) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Whereas the establishment of a Community system of information on home and leisure accidents forms a component part of a policy on consumer protection and the prevention of accidents; whereas its importance in this respect can be seen from the fact that the data collected in pursuance of the demonstration project set up by Council Decision 86/138/EEC (1), as amended by Decision 90/534/EEC (2), are being put to specific uses by several Member States for the adoption of measures in the area of product safety;

Whereas Council Decision 93/683/EEC (3) introduced a system of information on home and leisure accidents for one year in 1993; whereas the objective of preventing accidents requires a longer period and whereas a four-year period seems appropriate;

Whereas national policies on protection of the health and safety of consumers as well as on prevention of home and leisure accidents are already being implemented in all the Member States; whereas, however, it is necessary, due to the increasing circulation of products in the framework of the internal market, to provide for specific action in order to allow, in this internal market, identification of the products involved in accidents and the combination of circumstances which might lead to these accidents; whereas, for this purpose, it is desirable for national authorities to have sufficiently homogeneous instruments so that the conclusions of one Member State can, where appropriate, be used in other Member States as well as at Community level;

Whereas, although the management of consumer safety is primarily the responsibility of each Member State, Community financial involvement can help the Member States to overcome the problems of the actual collection of data at national level; whereas the Commission must therefore provide coordination and contribute to the homogeneous implementation of action taken at national level, by promoting the dissemination of information on home and leisure accidents to all the competent authorities;

Whereas a Community framework and Community financial assistance are necessary to avoid major distortions, since a number of Member States would not have the necessary resources to obtain by themselves the data on home and leisure accidents which help to establish a policy on consumer protection;

Whereas steps should be taken to ensure the overall quality of the data and, in the context of the internal market and Council Directive 92/59/EEC of 29 June 1992 on general product safety (4), to make it possible for all Member States to collect the information needed for the monitoring of the products involved in accidents; whereas such data must be obtained from hospital casualty departments, or alternative sources offering equal guarantees of reliability of the data;

Whereas the Community aspects of the collection of data oblige the Member States to use a homogenous methodology for the collection and production of information for transmission to the Commission; whereas this constraint is not disproportionate to the objective pursued; whereas, by its very nature, this system is not appropriate to serve as statistical proof, a fact which should be pointed out each time the system is referred to;

Whereas the Commission will, for the application of this Decision, use the committee provided for in Article 10 (1) of Directive 92/59/EEC for the purpose of assisting the Commission in defining the technical aspects in connection with the implementation and the improvement of the system;

Whereas the provision of specific information by the Member States, at the Commission's request, on products or groups of products involved in accidents is necessary for the development of a Community policy on product safety;

Whereas the Member States must also be in a position to make annual summary reports to the Commission; whereas the conclusions drawn by the Member States in those reports should make it possible for the Commission, in concert with the Member States, to determine what action should be taken at Community level;

Whereas, finally, the introduction of an information system on home and leisure accidents appears, under these conditions, to be necessary at Community level, to support and complement the policy carried out by the Member States in this important area to achieve a high level of consumer protection and it does not exceed what is necessary to promote the prevention of such accidents; it is therefore consonant with the principle of subsidiarity,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

1. A Community system of information on home and leisure accidents, hereinafter referred to as 'the system`, is hereby set up for a period of four years. The specifications and operating procedures of the system shall be as set out in Annex I.

2. The system's objectives shall be to collect data on home and leisure accidents with a view to promoting accident prevention, improving the safety of consumer products and informing and educating consumers so that they make better use of products, at both a national and a Community level.

3. This Decision shall not apply to occupational accidents and illness, nor to road, rail, sea or air traffic accidents.

Article 2

1. Member States shall be responsible for implementing the system. They shall process directly the data collected and submit to the Commission annual reports containing summaries and evaluations at national level of the results obtained and the conclusions they draw from those results. These reports must be forwarded at the latest at the end of the first quarter of the following year, for the year in question.

2. Member States shall supply the Commission, at its request, with available data on the safety of certain products or categories of products involved in home and leisure accidents, and the circumstances surrounding such accidents.

3. Member States shall designate the authority or authorities responsible for the collection and transmission of the data and shall inform the Commission of the names and addresses of those authorities. The Commission shall forward this information to all Member States with a view to stimulating the exchange of information between national authorities.

4. In the interests of transparency in the use of Community funds, each Member State shall ensure appropriate publication of the report referred to in paragraph 1.

Article 3

1. To improve the compatibility of the methodologies used, the Commission shall, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 (2), at the latest by the end of the first year of the system's functioning, and on the basis of previous experience, draw up new rules concerning codes, definitions, classification of the data and the presentation of the national reports. To this end the Commission shall, in particular, take into account the codes and models already existing at an international or Community level.

2. The Commission shall help finance implementation of the system in the Member States, in accordance with the detailed rules laid down in Annex II.

3. The Commission shall process, summarize and publish each year the data received from the Member States and shall disseminate them in an appropriate manner at Community level, in particular to the Consumer Consultative Council, to European or national consumer associations, to European consumer information centres and to European standardization bodies. This information will be directly accessible to consumers by means of the network for the exchange of information on the rights of the consumers in the Community. The Commission shall also undertake information campaigns, in so far as they are necessary at Community level.

Article 4

1. The Commission and the Member States shall ensure that, in the course of the collection and forwarding of information, all identifying details or those which enable identities to be deduced are removed so that the identity of victims remains confidential.

2. Any referenced use of data in the Member States in official publications shall be accompanied by the following statement: 'The Community system of information on home and leisure accidents provides only general indications and cannot be regarded as statistical proof of the safety or lack of safety of a given product`.

Article 5

In the course of 1996, the Commission shall draw up an assessment report on the operation of the system together, where appropriate, with proposals for amendments, in particular proposals for amendments to the arrangements for financial support and the allocation, between the Member States, of hospitals participating in the system.

By 31 December 1997, the Commission shall draw up a final report on the implementation and effectiveness of the system.

In drawing up its reports, the Commission shall take due account of experience gained from previous assessments and pay particular attention to the following:

- the timeliness, quality and comparability of the data provided by the Member States,

- the need to adjust existing codes and to adopt new codes and common coding principles taking into account the increasing number of new products,

- the ease of access to information,

- the enhanced value of the data to the Member States and the Community.

The reports shall be submitted to the Council, the European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee.

Article 6

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the committee set up by Article 10 (1) of Directive 92/59/EEC.

2. The representative of the Commission shall submit to the committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft, within a time limit which the chairman may lay down according to the urgency of the matter, if necessary by taking a vote.

The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in addition, each Member State shall have the right to ask to have its position recorded in the minutes.

The Commission shall take the utmost account of the opinion delivered by the committee. It shall inform the committee of the manner in which its opinion has been taken into account.

Article 7

This Decision shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

It shall apply from 1 January 1994.

Article 8

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

(1) OJ No L 109, 26. 4. 1986, p. 23.

(2) OJ No L 296, 27. 10. 1990, p. 64.

(3) OJ No L 319, 21. 12. 1993, p. 40.

(4) OJ No L 228, 11. 8. 1992, p. 24.

ANNEX I

Specifications of the system

1. The system shall apply to home and leisure accidents which are followed by medical treatment and which occur in the home or its immediate surroundings, such as gardens, yards and garages, or during leisure, sports or school activities.

2. The basic information shall be obtained from the casualty departments of hospitals selected by the Member States in accordance with the limits specified at point 4.

The Federal Republic of Germany, Luxembourg and Spain's participation will take the form of household surveys.

3. When compiling their national reports, Member States shall, wherever possible, take into account additional information, including that obtained from poison-antidote centres, death certificates, family doctors, burns treatment centres, fire services and emergency systems.

4. A special attention is brought to the quality of the data, especially to the representativity of the hospitals, to the regularity of the surveys and the extend of the samples.

The data shall at least include information on:

- the place where the accident occurred,

- the date of the accident,

- the place of treatment,

- the activity of the victim at the time of the accident,

- the type of accident,

- the type of product involved in the accident,

- the age of the victim,

- the sex of the victim,

- the type of injury,

- the parts of the body injured,

- the duration of treatment,

- a brief description of the accident and its causes (including, where possible, the main features and identifying details of the product involved).

This information shall be classified in accordance with the common criteria of the existing coding manual and for the future according to the rules as foreseen in Article 3 (1) of the present Decision.

5. The allocation of hospitals among the Member States shall be as follows:

>TABLE>

As far as possible the Member States should make their best efforts to ensure the geographical representativity taking into consideration the aspects of both rural and urban communities.

ANNEX II

Utilization of financial support

1. Community financial support for the hospitals participating in the collection of data would be allocated at a standard rate representing 80 % of the actual costs in 1994, 70 % in 1995, 60 % in 1996 and 50 % in 1997 up to a ceiling of ECU 28 000 per hospital for the first year and with an adjustment of the ceiling corresponding to the abovementioned percentages for each of the following years.

2. Community financial support for the household surveys in Germany, Spain and Luxembourg will be allocated at a standard rate of 80 % in 1994, 70 % in 1995, 60 % in 1996 and 50 % in 1997 of the actual costs incurred up to a ceiling of:

- ECU 380 000 for Germany,

- ECU 225 000 for Spain,

- ECU 95 000 for Luxembourg.

the first year and with an adjustment corresponding to the abovementioned percentages for each of the following years.

3. In addition, Community financial support would be provided as a contribution to the strengthening of the least developed national infrastructures, in particular through the development of appropriate computerized networks and so that Member States with operational collection systems may give bilateral technical assistance to the other Member States.

This Community financial support may not exceed 3,5 % of the overall financial support granted by the Community.

4. Financial support is tied to the submission of the annual report referred to in Article 2 of this Decision.