COUNCIL RESOLUTION of 5 April 1993 on future action on the labelling of products in the interest of the consumer

(93/C 110/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

1.Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community,

2.Whereas it is necessary for the effective working of the internal market, established since 1 January 1993, that all parties involved, including individual consumers, have confidence in the operation of this market and benefit fully from it;

3.Whereas, in its resolution of 9 November 1989 on future priorities for relaunching consumer protection policy (1), the Council, in line with its resolutions of 14 April 1975 and 19 May 1981, set as one of its priorities seeking a Community framework for providing information on products by means of labelling;

4.Whereas the Council's resolution of 13 July 1992 on future priorities for the development of consumer protection policy (2) underlines the need to secure consumer confidence in the operation of the single market and to ensure the consumer's freedom to choose from a diverse range of goods and services by improved information and transparency; whereas this resolution calls for further measures in the areas of transparency and information inter alia with regard to further harmonization of labelling;

5.Whereas various recent studies have shown that consumers set a high value on information by labelling and a large majority finds it necessary that the same kind of information on specific products be provided in all Member States;

6.Whereas legislation already adopted by the Council has established detailed labelling requirements for certain products; whereas for other products requirements are insufficient or even lacking;

7.Whereas disparity of existing national legislation on labelling risks creating barriers to trade within the Community and thereby impeding the operation of the internal market,

REAFFIRMS that labelling is one important means of achieving better information and transparency for the consumer and of ensuring that the internal market functions harmoniously.

INVITES the Commission, in consultation with Member States and with the interested parties (consumer, industry and commerce organizations), to examine the need and merits of a Community-wide solution and, on that basis, to study the possibility of establishing a Community framework for labelling requirements.

NOTES that the Commission intends to take account of the result of its recent consumer enquiries, of existing Community legislation and the current discussion on Commission proposals, the objective of harmonization, the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality and self-regulatory systems between consumers, industry and commerce organizations in the Member States.

INVITES the Commission to address the issues listed in the Annex and to present its conclusions to the Council with the utmost alacrity and to present appropriate proposals at the latest before June 1994. In the meantime, the Commission should keep the Council regularly informed of the progress of its study.

(1) OJ No C 294, 22. 11. 1989, p. 1.

(2) OJ No C 186, 23. 7. 1992, p. 1.