Amended proposal for a EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL DECISION introducing a Community system of information on home and leisure accidents
Date: 1994-05-11
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU financing, accident in the home, consumer information, consumer protection, information system, leisure, product safety

fell 

ICMV1ISSION  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  COMVfUNITIES 

COM(94) 192 final 

Brussels, 11.05.1994 

94/0031  (COD) 

Amended proposal  for a 

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL DECISION 

introducing a Community eyatem of information on home and 
leisure accidenta 

(presented by the Commission pursuant  to Article 189 a (2) 
of the EC-Treaty) 

*-i§st§ 

11. 

. . 't 

m »i 

im-: 

t SB*»", 

» Vit 
1  ^f 

«PB 

i At©it 

v  ji| 

-1-

Explanatory memorandum 

This  amended  proposal  for  a  European  Parliament  and  Council  Decision 

introducing  a  Community  system  of  information  on  home  and  leisure 

accidents reflects the opinion delivered  by the European  Parliament  at 

its first reading during the plenary session of 5 May 1994. 

The European Parliament  delivered  a  favourable opinion on the proposal 

and  adopted  two  amendments  concerning  Annex  II, points  1 and  2 of the 

initial  proposal,  aiming  to  keep  Community  financial  support  at  a 

constant level. 

To ensure that the proposal was adopted, the Commission  accepted  these 

two amendments, as given in this amended proposal, although the initial 

proposal provided for degressiveness in Community financial support. 

The Commission considers that when the the Council and the 

Parliament  adopt  the proposal  they  should  take  account  of  the  need  to 

involve the Member States in financing the system on a level reflecting 

the principle of subsidiarity in this area. 

-2-

Amended  Proposal  for a European  Parliament  and Council  Decision 
introducing  a Community  eyatem of  information  on home and 
leisure  accidents 

(presented  by the Commission  pursuant  to Article  189 a (2) 
of  the EC-Treaty) 

Annex  II - point  1 

Text by the  Commission 

Amendment 

at 

of 

data 

standard 

in 
would 

Community  financial  support  for  the 
the 
hospitals 
participating 
be 
collection 
allocated 
rate 
a 
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. 

Community  financial  support  for 
the  hospitals  participating  in 
the  collection  of  data  would  be 
allocated  at  a  standard  rate 
representing  80%  of  the  real 
costs  for  the  four  years  until 
1997,  up  to  a  ceiling  of  ECU 
28.000 per  hospital  per year. 

- 3-

Annex  II - point  2 

Text by the  Commission 

Amendment 

Community  financial  support  for  the  Community  financial  support  for 
household  surveys  in  Germany,  Spain  the household  surveys  in Germany, 
Spain  and  Luxembourg  will  be 
and  Luxembourg  will  be  allocated  at 
allocated  at  80%  of  the  real 
a  standard  rate  of  80%  in  1994, 70% 
costs  for  the  four  years  until 
in 1995, 60% in 1996 and  50% in  1997 
1997,  up to a ceiling  of 
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, 

-  ECU  380.000  for Germany 
-  ECU  225.000  for  Spain 
-  ECU  95.000  for  Luxembourg, 

year 

first 

an 
the 
adjustement  corresponding  to  the 
abovementioned  percentages  for  each 
of the  following years. 

with 

and 

per year, 

V 

FINANCIAL STATEMENT 

1.  Title of operation 

Introduction of a Community  information  system on home and leisure 

accidents 

2.  Budget heading involved 

B5-105 

3.  Legal basis 

Article 129 A  (2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community 

4.  Description of operation 

4.1 General objective 

In developing Community consumer protection policy, there is a need 

to establish a system for collecting data on  "consumer" accidents, 

so  as  to  identify  the  categories  of  products  that  give  rise  to 

hazards.  This  will  help  to  provide  guidelines  based  on  the  data 

gathered as to what specific measures are required. 

4.2 Period covered and arrangements for renewal or extension 

1994-1997 

5.  Type of expenditure or revenue 

5.1 DO/DNO 

DNO 

5.2 CD/CND 

CD 

5.3 Type of revenue involved 

None 

6.  Type of expenditure  or  revenue 

s 

Subsidy  for  joint  financing with  other  sources  in the public  and/or 

private  sector 

100%  subsidy 

No. 80% 

Subsidy  for  joint  financing  with  other  sources  in  the  public 

and/or private  sector 

Yes 

- 

Interest  subsidy 

No 

Other 

No 

Should  the  operation  prove  an  economic  success,  is  there 

provision  for  all  or  part  of  the  Community  contribution  to  be 

reimbursed? 

No 

Will  the  proposed  operation  cause  any  change  in  the  level  of 

revenue?  If so, what  sort of  change  and what  type of  revenue  is 

involved? 

Not  relevant 

7.  Financial  Impact 

7.1  Method  of  calculating  total  cost  of  operation  (definition  of  unit 

costs) 

Part B of the budget 

1.  Work  done by the Commission: ECU  0.2  million 

methodology  and data  collection 

dissemination  and  exploitation  at  Community  level  of  the 

national  results  and  of  specific  analyses.  Annual  report  (Art. 

3,3). 

2. 

Finances  allocated  to  the  Member  States  for  collecting,  processing 

and exploiting  the data; ECU  2.3  million. 

G 

support  for  the  hospitals  participating  in  data  collection  on 

the  basis  of  54  hospitals  with  the  breakdown  shown  in  Annex  1 

of the proposal  for a decision  (80% of costs, with  a maximum  of 

ECU  28  000  per  hospital  for  each  year),  as  well  as  a 

contribution  to  Germany,  Spain  and  Luxembourg  using  household 

surveys  (80 % of the expenses  as mentioned  above with  a  ceiling 

as described  in Annex  II, point 2 ). 

support  for  the  least  developed  national  infrastructures, 

notably  by  strengthening  appropriate  data  networks. 

- 

support  for  bilateral  technical  assistance  provided  to  other 

Member  States  by  the Member  States  that  have  an  operating  data 

collection  system. 

Total of Part B: ECU  2.5  million. 

7.2.Itemized breakdown  of  cost 

Breakdown 

1.  Work done by the  Commission 

ECU 

200 000 

2.  54 hospitals x ECU  28 000 

ECU  1 512  000 

household  surveys 

Germany  : 

Spain: 

Lux: 

ECU 

380 000 

ECU 

225  000 

ECU 

95  000 

+  support  for the least developped  countries 

+  support  for bilateral  technical  assistance 

ECU 

88  000 

ECU  2 500 000 

3 

7.3.2 

Schedule  for  the  preliminary  draft  budget  for  multiannual 

operations whose  basic 

instrument  contains  an  "amount deemed  necessary" 

period:  1994-1997 

Budget 
1994 

n + 1 

n + 2 

n + 3 

TOTAL 

2,5 Mio Ecu 

2,5  Mio Ecu 

2,5 Mio Ecu 

2,5 Mio Ecu 

10  Mio Ecu 

From  1995  on  the  annual  provision  of  appropriations  for  this  line 

will  be  decided  in  the  context  of  the  annual  budgetary  procedure, 

depending  on  the  results  of  the  measures  carried  out  taking  into 

account  the  cost-effectiveness  aspect  and  the  method  of  payement 

described  in 7.1.2. 

8.  What  ant i- fraud  measures  are  planned  in  the  proposal  for  the 

operation? 

Verification  of  the  subsidies  or  of  the  acceptance  of  the 

preparatory,  feasability  or  evaluation  services  or  studies  is 

carried  out by the Commission  prior to payment, taking  into  account 

the  contractual  obligations  and  the  principles  of  economy  and  good 

financial  and  overall  management.  Anti-fraud  measures  (monitoring, 

submission  of  reports, etc.)  are  included  in  all  the  agreements  or 

contracts concluded  between  the Commission  and  the benificiaries of 

the payments. 

ELEMENTS OF COST-EFFECTIVENESS  ANALYSIS 

9•1 Specific  and quantifiables objectives; target  population 

The  system  of  collecting  data  on  home  and  leisure  accidents  should 

be  a  key  indicator  for  determining  consumer  protection  policy  and 

specially  prevention  policies.  This  objective  is  difficult  to 

quantify  in  that  an  in-depth  study  would  be  needed  in  order  to 

determine  the  precise  socio-economic  costs  -  which  are  certainly 

very  steep  -  of  home  and  leisure  accidents; moreover  the  costs  in 

human terms of these accidents  are heavy  but  not  quantifiable. 

9.2  Grounds  for the  operation 

8 

The  measure  complements  existing  national  mesures.  The  collection 

of the measure  of data  from  hospital  emergency  services  selected  in 

the  Member  States  or  through  household  surveys  should  provide 

direct  information  on the most  important  accidents, on the basis of 

agreed  methods  in  the  different  Member  States.  Moreover,  the  data 

will be collected  on an ongoing  basis.  A good  knowledge  of data  of 

domestic  and  leisure  accidents  is  vital  in  order  to  allow  actions 

and policies of prevention  of  these  accidents. The objective  of  the 

measure  is  in  line  with  the  Directive  on  general  product  safety, 

for  which  the  collection  should  provide  indicators  on  safety 

problems. 

Thanks  to  these  objective  data  the  operational  impact  of  this 

Directive,  which  will  enter  into  force  in  1994,  will  be 

significantly  enhanced. 

The  safety  of  consumers  in  the  Community  must  be  ensured  in  the 

framework  of  the  functionning  of  the  internal  market  when  more  and 

more  products  will  be  circulating  in  the  Community.  As  a  result, 

the  risks  faced  by  consumers  will  increase,  and  it  is  desirable  to 

have national monitoring  systems which  are  sufficiently  homogeneous 

to  enable  the  conclusions  drawn  in  one  Member  States  to  be  used, 

where  appropriate,  in  the  other  Member  States  and  at  Community 

level. 

Community  involvement  is  required  to  enable  the  Member  States  to 

overcome the difficulties  associated  with  the collection  of data  at 

national  level.  This  is  needed  for  methodological  and  budgetary 

reasons  because  if  no  Community  assistance  were  forthcoming,  in 

particular  financial  assistance,  this  would  deal  a  blow  to  the 

collection  of  information  on  accidents  in  a  number  of  Member 

States,  specially  in  those  with  less  developped  administrative 

structures,  a  development  which  would  seriously  distort  the 

monitoring  of consumer  safety  in the  Community. 

9.3 Monitoring and evaluation of the operation 

9 

The Member  States  should  provide the Commission  with  two types of 

information: 

specific data on specific products, in line with the needs for 

a  developing  consumer  protection  policy  and  prevention  of 

accidents; 

annual reports from the Member States on the implementation and 

results of the collection, on the basis of which the Commission 

will  produce  evaluation  reports  of  the  system  at  Community 

level  (one  report  after  two  years  and  one  at  the  end  of  the 

five year period). 

Moreover, the Commission will provide an annual synthesis report on 

the  data  collected  and  the  conclusions  to  be  drawn  for  the 

development of its consumer protection policy. 

Imponderables  which  may  effect  the  specific  results  of  the 

operation  lie in  its effective  implementation  and, above  all, the 

functionality of the system in all the Member States. These depend 

on how well the two problems identified  above are solved,  in other 

words utilisation of the data and their faster availability, and in 

both  these  respects  the  Commission  will  do  its  utmost  to  ensure 

success. 

9.4 Coherence with financial programming 

Is the operation  incorporated  in the  financial  programming  of the 

DG for the years concerned? 

Yes. 

To  which  broader  objective  defined  in  the  DG ' s  financial 

programming does the objective correspond? 

Policy on general product safety. 

10. ADMINISTRATIVE  EXPENDITURE  (Part A of the  budget) 

10.1 

Will  the  proposad  operation  involve  an  increase  in  the  number 

of Commission  staff ? 

No,  the  necessary  staff  could  be  made  available  by  internal 

reattribution  of the  functions 

10.2 

Indicate  the  amount  of  staff  and  administrative  expenditure 

involved  in  the  proposed  operation.  Explain  the  method  of 

calculation. 

Part A of the budget 

1.  Personnel  and management  costs: ECU 0.23  million. 

- 

Secretariat  of  meetings  of  national  experts  responsible  for 

collecting  and  transmitting  the  data  on  home  and  leisure 

accidents  (three per  year) 

A  1178 Logistic, methodological  and  financial  coordination. 

Assistance 

from 

an  external 

organisation 

in 

defining 

methodology 

concerning 

determination 

of 

product 

codes, 

presentation  and methods of analysis. 

Estimated  costs: ECU  30 000 

These  credits  are  subject  to  the  allocation  of  the  resources 

which  are to be decided  by the Commission. 

Personnel:  1  A  official  (100%)  +  1  B  official  (100%)  +  1  C 

auxiliaire  (50%). 

1 A official  (100%) titre A8/A4 

ECU  90 000 per  year 

1 B official  (100%) titre  B4/B1 

ECU  90 000 per  year 

A1110  1 C auxiliaire  (50%) 

ECU  17 750 per  year 

The  personnel  and  management  costs  will  be  necessary  from  March 

1994  for  the  C  official  and  from  September  1994  for  the  A  and  B 

official. 

The proposed  operation  is set up  for a period  of  four years. 

2.  Art A/260 Studies : ECU 0.205 million 

Complementary  studies  necessary  for  specific  analysis  of  national 

and Community data are required. 

These credits are subject to the allocation of the resources which 

are to be decided by the Commission. 

3.  Art A/250 Costs of meetings  : ECU 0.045 million 

Meetings  of  the  national  experts  at  the  initiative  of  the 

Commission, with two or three experts, from every Member State: 

three meetings per year. 

Total of Part A: ECU 0.50 million. 

Personnal and management costs 

ECU 0.23  million 

Studies 

Costs of meeting 

ECU 0.205 million 

ECU 0.045 million 

Total of post A 

ECU 0.48  million 

ISSN 0254-1475 

COM(94) 192 final 

DOCUMENTS 

EN 

16  10 05 

Catalogue number : CB-CO-94-205-EN-C 

ISBN 92-77-68574-3 

Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 
L-2985 Luxembourg