WRITTEN QUESTION E-0618/03 by Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (PSE)and Christa Prets (PSE) to the Commission. Safety risk for divers owing to non-standard Deco tables.
Date: 2003-03-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Committee for Standardisation, European standard, accident prevention, measuring equipment, product safety, sport, standardisation, weights and measures

C 192 E/208

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

14.8.2003

Has it used the services of outside consultants to any degree, and if so:

(cid:1) Who were these consultants? And

(cid:1) What amounts did it pay in fees for these external services?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(13 March 2003)

The Commission has not used the services of outside consultants for the preparation and the formulation
of the proposed reform of the common organisations of the markets as part of the current review of the
Common Agricultural Policy.

However, as far as the impact analyses of the proposals is concerned, the Commission made use of the
following outside consultants in order to obtain independent external assessments of the proposals, as a
complement to the Commission’s own internal analyses:

(a) Eurocare (European Centre for Agricultural, Regional and Environmental Policy Research) GmbH,

Bonn, Germany;

(b)

the Centre for World Food Studies (Sow-vu), Amsterdam, The Netherlands;

(c) Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI), University of Missouri (cid:1) Columbia, USA.

The totality of the fees paid for the services in relation to these external independent impact assessments
amounted to EUR 40,000.

(2003/C 192 E/250)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0618/03

by Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (PSE)
and Christa Prets (PSE) to the Commission

(3 March 2003)

Subject: Safety risk for divers owing to non-standard Deco tables

Deco tables protect divers from accidents (decompression accidents). Based on the length of time which
the diver plans to spend at particular depths, the Deco tables make it possible to calculate the safety stops
which the diver should make when ascending to prevent decompression sickness.

Both professional and recreational divers face the problem that there are no standard Deco tables in EU
countries. The absence of European standards with a view to uniform Deco tables means that different
times are given in the different EU countries for the duration of the dive at various depths, which increases
the risk of diving accidents.

The 1992 Deco tables were modified in some EU countries in 2000. However, the changes made were not
standardised.

Given that there are no uniform rules for Deco tables at European level, and divers consequently face an
increased health risk, can the Commission answer the following questions:

1.

2.

Is the Commission aware of this problem?

Is the Commission considering taking steps to resolve this problem at European level?

14.8.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 192 E/209

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(26 March 2003)

1.

The Commission has not been made aware of this specific problem.

The Commission does not consider that the legal basis of Article 152 of the EC Treaty, regarding

2.
public health, would support the adoption of Community measures in this matter.

The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) adopted already in 2000 on a voluntary basis Standard
EN 13319: 2000 on depth gauges and combined depth and time measuring devices. It allows the diver to
know for how long he was exposed to a certain pressure, which is related to the depth. The CEN standard
guarantees high accuracy concerning the above aspects. The discrepant information delivered by the DCI
(decompression illness) protocols used in the different Member States remains and cannot be solved by
CEN standards.

Attention is also drawn to the fact that CEN adopted Standard EN 1809:1997 on safety requirements and
test methods for buoyancy compensators in the framework of the Personal Protective Equipment Directive
89/686/EEC (1). The references of this Standard were published in the Official Journal (2). DECO-tables are
also used in the context of diving instruction and diving services offered to consumers. The Commission
will soon present a general Report on the Safety of Consumer Services in accordance with the request by
the Parliament and the Council set out in Article 20 of the revised General Product Safety Directive 2001/
95/EC (3). The report will discuss several issues and priorities in relation to safety of consumer services. No
existing injury data or risk assessment has yet been identified linked to the use of different DECO-tables.

The Commission has been informed that CEN is in the process of developing several standards for diving
services and training of scuba divers and instructors (CEN/TC 329 (cid:1) Tourism services, WG 3, draft
standards prEN 14153-1, 14153-2, 14153-3, 14413-1, 14413-2 and 14467). This work will focus on
main risk elements in connection with organised diving and provide input for the usefulness of further
standardisation in the scuba diving area.

(1) Council Directive 89/686/EEC of 21 December 1989 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States

relating to personal protective equipment (cid:1) OJ L 399, 30.12.1989.

(2) OJ C 183, 13.6.1998.
(3) OJ L 11, 15.1.2002.

(2003/C 192 E/251)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0625/03

by Michael Cashman (PSE) to the Commission

(25 February 2003)

Subject: Transposition of EU legislation

Could the Commission inform me as to whether the current Member States of the EU have taken the
necessary measures to implement the Race Directive (2000/43/EC (1)) and the Employment Framework
Directive (2000/78/EC (2))? If so, could the Commission confirm that the deadline of respectively July 2003
and December 2003 for the transposition of these two Directives will be met?

Is the Commission aware of any Member States encountering any problems or experiencing any reluctance
to implement the said Directives?

Will the Commission outline what action it is prepared to take in the event of non-implementation within
the respective deadlines?

(1) OJ L 180, 19.7.2000, p. 22.
(2) OJ L 303, 2.12.2000, p. 16.