WRITTEN QUESTION E-1721/99

by María Sornosa Martínez (PSE) to the Commission

(29 September 1999)

Subject: The need for urgent implementation of legislation on safety in fairgrounds

The recent case of a four-year-old boy who died after falling off a fairground ride in Torrevieja (Alicante) is the latest in a sad succession of accidents caused by defective recreational equipment of this kind. At the time of the accident, the residents of Alicante were still absorbing the news of the death of another child in Campello after he received an electric shock from a fairground ride.

A study financed by the Commission in 1995 found that fairground accidents account for more hospital stays than any other type of accidents occurring in leisure time. The study also showed that checks and inspections carried out on such equipment varied considerably between the Member States and that national legislation in this area also differed widely. The Commission had been planning to draw up a directive, but this never materialised. The European Parliament was informed that the 1992 Edinburgh Summit changed the Commission's priorities, and it decided to withdraw the proposed legislation on technical standards for fairgrounds. Finally, the Commission decided to ask the European Committee for Standardisation to draft European legislation establishing technical specifications for fairground equipment.

Prompted by the Alicante accident, the Organización de Consumidores Españoles (Spanish Consumers' Organisation) has expressed concern at the fact that this legislation will not be adopted and come into force for another two years and has drawn attention to the worrying legal vacuum in Spain concerning the standards that recreational machinery must meet.

Could the Commission give details of progress to date on the drafting and adoption of European rules for fairgrounds? How and when will Community citizens benefit in practice from European legislation in this area? Given the seriousness of the accidents that have occurred on this type of equipment, what does the Commission intend to do to speed up implementation of the legislation adopted throughout the Community? Does the Commission agree that it should reconsider its 1992 decision and give the rules the status of a directive?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(4 November 1999)

The Commission entirely shares in the Honourable Member's unease concerning fairground safety, more particularly since this generally affects children. The Commission is particularly sensitive to the recent accident which led to the death of a four year old child.

The aspects on which the Honourable Member has based the analysis of the situation coincide with those supplied by the Commission, more particularly in the answers given to questions E-3167/98 by Mrs Pollack(1) and H-0669/97 by Mr Willockx at question time during the September 1997 parliamentary session(2).

To be more precise, although it emerges from the 1995 study that was jointly financed by the Commission that accidents occurring during this type of leisure activity resulted in an average hospitalisation of 7,8 % as compared with the average of 5,5 % caused by all other factors recorded by the European Home and Leisure Accident Surveillance System (Ehlass 1987-1998), those same accidents represented 1,2 % of the accidents listed, a proportion also including accidents taking place on playing fields.

Since the conclusions reached at the 1992 Edinburgh Council have not been challenged, the Commission intends to continue the approach adopted when it conferred a remit on the European Centre for Standardisation (CEN) to draw up harmonised standards for amusements parks.

At the moment the CEN has stated that the surveys relating to those standards should begin during the first half of next year.

(1) OJ C 135, 14.5.1999.

(2) Parliamentary debates (September 1997).