Product testing agreement with Dutch laboratory

Compliance with CE marking, a declaration that a product complies with European health, safety and environmental protection laws, has increased in outlets from about 70 per cent during 2002/3 to over 95 per cent in 2004, the Market Surveillance Directorate said.

However, this was not enough, it added.

A memorandum of understanding between the directorate and the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, on the testing of non-food products, was signed yesterday. It is aimed at ensuring a higher level of consumer protection.

As a result of the agreement, the directorate, which falls within the Competitiveness and Communications Ministry, will commission its Dutch counterpart to perform laboratory tests to improve the standards of product safety in Malta.

The Dutch authority has its own accredited laboratory and is responsible for the market surveillance of both food and non-food products in its country.

The Memorandum of Understanding aims to ensure that the Consumer and Competition Division is able to test a number of non-food products in The Netherlands to ensure that the products being placed on the local market are as safe as in any other EU member state.

The agreement also facilitates the effective application of the general safety requirements of the General Product Safety Directive within the Single Market, as well as other related directives, in particular the Toys Directive and the Low Voltage Directive, Competitiveness and Communications Minister Censu Galea explained.

The agreement also promotes the effective enforcement of the obligations incumbent on producers and distributors within the Single Market, ensuring that products passing through Malta are safe for use.

It is also expected that through the agreement, possibly unsafe products would be easily identified through testing, and removed from the market.

The Market Surveillance Directorate is the national coordinator of all market surveillance activities of non-food products in Malta, the minister explained. It is responsible for the development of outline policies and surveillance programmes for all government organisations to ensure a coordinated approach, while periodically reviewing and assessing their respective market surveillance functions.

Dutch Ambassador Rienko Wilton said the laboratory in The Netherlands was too expensive for every country to build. He said Malta was an example to the rest of Europe of cooperation on product testing, which was being encouraged by the European Commission..