CELEX: 51993PC0018
Language: en
Date: 1993-01-26
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION introducing a Community system of information on home and leisure accidents

No C 59 / 10                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                     2 . 3 . 93
                                                                      II
                                                            (Preparatory Acts)
                                                       COMMISSION
             Proposal for a Council Decision introducing a Community system of information on home and
                                                             leisure accidents
                                                               (93 / C 59/ 07)
                                                            COM(93) 18 final
                                           (Submitted by the Commission on 9 February 1993)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ,                                 therefore provide coordination and contribute to the
                                                                          homogeneous implementation of activities conducted at
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                     national level , by promoting the dissemination of infor­
Economic Community, and in particular Article 235                         mation     on home and leisure accidents to all            the
thereof,                                                                  competent authorities ;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                        Whereas a Community framework and Community
                                                                          financial assistance are necessary in order to avoid major
Having regard to the opinion of the European                              distortions , since a number of Member States would not
Parliament,                                                               have the necessary resources to obtain by themselves the
                                                                          data on home and leisure accidents which help to
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                          establish a policy on consumer protection ; whereas steps
Social Committee ,                                                        should be taken to ensure the overall quality of the data
                                                                          by the use of homogeneous basic methods and, in the
                                                                          context of the internal market and Council Directive
Whereas the establishment of a Community system of
information on home and leisure accidents forms a                         92 /59 /EEC of 29 June 1992 on general product
component part of a consumer protection policy ;                          safety ('), to make it possible for all Member States to
whereas its importance in this respect can be seen from                   collect the information needed for the monitoring of the
the fact that the data collected in pursuance of the                      products involved in accidents ;
demonstration project set up by Council Decision
86/ 138 /EEC ('), as amended by Council Decision                          Whereas the Community aspects of the collection of data
90/ 534/EEC (2), are being put to specific uses by several                oblige the Member States to use a homogeneous metho­
Member States for the adoption of measures in the area                    dology for the collection and production of information
of product safety ;                                                       for transmission to the Commission ; whereas this
                                                                          constraint is not disproportionate to the objective
Whereas the completion of the internal market on                          pursued ;
1 January 1993 is increasing the circulation of products
within the Community; whereas, in order to identify the                   Whereas the provision of specific information by the
products involved in accidents and the combination of                     Member States, at the Commission's request, on
circumstances which might lead to these accidents , it is                 products or groups of products involved in accidents is
therefore desirable for the national authorities to have
                                                                          necessary for the development of a Community policy on
sufficiently homogeneous instruments so that the                          product safety ;
conclusions of one Member State can, where appro­
priate, be used in the other Member States as well as at
Community level ;                                                         Whereas the Member States must also be in a position to
                                                                          present to the Commission annual summary reports ;
Whereas, although the management of consumer safety                       whereas the conclusions drawn by the Member States in
is primarily the responsibility of each Member State,                     these reports should make it possible for the
                                                                          Commission , in concert which the Member States, to
Community financial involvement can help the Member
States to overcome the problems of the actual collection                  determine what action should be taken at Community
                                                                          level ;
of data at national level ; whereas the Commission must
(') OJ No L 109 , 26 . 4 . 1986 , p . 23 .
O OJ No L 296, 27 . 10 . 1990 , p . 64 .                                  O OJ No L 228 , 11 . 8 . 1992 , p. 24.
 ---pagebreak--- 2. 3 . 93                              Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 59 / 11
Whereas, finally, the introduction of an information                                      Article 3
system on home and leisure accidents appears, under
these conditions, to be necessary in this important area at      The Commission shall promote compatibility of the
Community level, to support and complement the policy            methodologies applied in the Member States, in
carried out by the Member States, to achieve a high level        particular with regard to the data collection basis and the
of consumer protection ; it does not exceed what is              national reports on the processing of the data.
necessary to promote the prevention of such accidents ; it       It shall help finance implementation of the system in the
is therefore in conformity with the principle of subsi­          Member States, according to the procedures laid down
diarity;                                                         in Annex II. The budgetary authority shall decide on the
                                                                 amounts available for each financial year.
Whereas the Treaty provides no powers other than those           After receiving the annual national reports, it shall
in Article 235 for the adoption of this Decision,                ensure that the data are processed, summarized and
                                                                 disseminated at Community level in an appropriate
                                                                 manner .
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
                                                                                          Article 4
                                                                 Each Member State shall designate and communicate to
                          Article 1                              the Commission the name(s) and address(es) of the
                                                                 authority or authorities responsible for collecting and
1 . A Community system of information on home and                transmitting information pursuant to Article 2 .
leisure accidents, hereinafter referred to as 'the system',
is hereby set up for a period of five years. The specifi­                                 Article 5
cations of the system are described in Annex I.
                                                                 The Commission and the Member States shall ensure
                                                                 that, during the process of collecting and forwarding
2. The system's objectives are to collect data on home           information, any identifying details are removed so that
and leisure accidents with a view to promoting accident          the identity of victims remains confidential .
prevention, improving the safety of consumer products
and informing and educating consumers so that they                                        Article 6
make better use of products.
                                                                 The Commission shall draw up an assessment report on
                                                                 the system, together where appropriate with proposals
3.     This Decision shall not apply to industrial               for amendments, and in particular amendments of the
accidents, nor to road, rail, sea or air traffic accidents.      arrangements for financial support, by 31 December
                                                                  1994 .
                                                                 The Commission shall draw up a final report on the
                          Article 2                              implementation and effectiveness of the system by 31
                                                                 December 1997 .
Member States shall be responsible for implementing the
system ; they shall process directly the data collected and      These reports shall be presented to the European
submit to the Commission an annual report containing a           Parliament, the Council , and the Economic and Social
summary and an evaluation at national level of the               Committee .
results obtained .
                                                                                          Article 7
They shall supply the Commission, at its request and by          This Decision shall apply from 1 January 1993 .
the dates set, with the data on the safety of certain
products, or specific categories of products, involved in                                 Article 8
home and leisure       accidents and the circumstances
surrounding such accidents.                                      This Decision is addressed to the Member States .
 ---pagebreak--- No C 59/ 12                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                    2 . 3 . 93
                                                                   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 .
                Information from alternative sources of an equivalent value may be accepted.
            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 . The basic data collected must be as reliable as possible.
                They 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 a system based on homogeneous criteria at
                Community level .
            5 . The allocation of hospitals among the Member States shall be as follows :
                                         Member State                                        Number of hospitals
                Belgium                                                                              4
                Denmark                                                                              5
                Germany                                                                             — C)
                Greece                                                                               4
                Spain                                                                                8
                France                                                                               8
                Ireland                                                                              2
                Italy                                                                                7
                Luxembourg                                                                          -o
                Netherlands                                                                          7
                Portugal                                                                             6
                United Kingdom                                                                      11
                                                                                                    62
                (') The Federal Republic of Germany and Luxembourg's participation will take the form of household surveys.
 ---pagebreak---  2 . 3 . 93                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                        No C 59 / 13
                                                                   ANNEX II
                                                        Utilization of financial support
                 Community financial support for the hospitals participating in the collection of data would be allocated at
                 a standard rate which will represent 80 % of the actual costs up to a ceiling of ECU 28 000 per hospital
                 per annum .
                 In addition, Community financial support would be provided as a contribution to the strengthening of the
                 least developed national infrastructures, notably by the development of appropriate computerized networks .
                 Lastly, Community financial support would be made available so that bilateral technical assistance can be
                 provided by the Member States with an operational collection system to the other Member States .
                 Amended proposal for a Council Directive on the approximation of the laws, regulations and
                          administrative provisions of the Member States relating to recreational craft (')
                                                                 (93/ C 59/ 08)
                                                      COM(93) 23 final — SYN 410
                 (Submitted by the Commission pursuant to Article 149 (3) ofthe EEC Treaty on 9 February 1993)
The proposal is amended as follows :                                         4 . point 3.5 of Annex I is amended as follows :
   1 . the second recital is replaced by :                                       first indent :
        'Whereas the minimum length of recreational craft                        '— have self-draining cockpits and wells , or';
        should be 2,5 m since craft under this length cannot
        be considered as recreational craft, whereas the                     5 . point 3.8 of Annex I is replaced by :
        maximum length of 24 m for recreational craft is
        derived from ISO standards', (delete the previous                          3.8 . Compartmentation
        footnote (*)) ;
                                                                                         All boats should be compartmented according
  2 . Article 1 (3) is amended as follows :                                              to their usage group (section 1.1 ), stability
                                                                                         (section 3.2) and buoyancy (section 3.3),
        fourth indent :                                                                  paying special attention to collision bulkheads .';
        '— powered surfboards, powered water vehicles and
            other similar craft,' ;                                          6. point 3.10 of Annex I is replaced by :
       sixth indent :                                                            ' 3.10 . Escape hatches for multihulls
        '— experimental craft, so long there is no transfer
            of ownership ,';                                                              All habitable multihull craft in usage groups A
                                                                                           and B of section 1.1 shall be fitted with escape
       seventh indent :                                                                   hatches that can allow escape from a capsized
       '— craft with crew and carrying passengers for                                     multihull craft.';
            commercial purposes within the meaning of
            Directive 82 / 714 / EEC';                                       7. point 3.11 of Annex I is replaced by :
  3 . point 2.4.1 of Annex I is replaced by :                                    ' 3.11 . Mooring and towing
       'For motor boats, the main steering position shall                                 All craft, taking into account their usage
       give the operator, under the normal conditions of                                  group (section 1.1 ) and their characteristics
       speed and load, good direct visibility forward and to                              shall be provided with arrangements for
       the side, whilst operating throttle, clutch and                                    handling and stowage of mooring and anchor
       steering controls .';                                                              ropes or cables.';
                                                                             8 . the third paragraph of point 5.5 of Annex I is
(') OJ No C 123 , 15 . 5 . 1992, p. 7 .                                          amended as follows :