Three products banned in EU after Maltese notification

The Maltese authorities last year notified the EU about three imported products that were deemed to be dangerous for consumers and, as a result, the items were banned in all the 27 EU member states.

This was revealed yesterday in Brussels following the publication of the 2007 annual report of the EU's Rapid Alert System, known as Rapex. The system is designed to ensure that information about dangerous products identified by national authorities is quickly circulated among all member states and the European Commission with the aim of preventing or restricting the sale of such products.

Commission sources told The Times that the three products identified by the Maltese authorities were imported from Thailand and China. All three items, an aquarium, a mosquito killer and a lamp, posed serious risks of electrical shock and fire due to poor manufacture. In all cases, the Maltese authorities immediately ordered a sales ban and informed the Commission through the Rapex system.

Speaking during a press conference, European Consumer Affairs Commissioner Maglena Kuneva said the report shows that the number of dangerous products removed from the EU market rose by 53 per cent in 2007 compared to 2006. The rise, from 1,051 notifications in 2006 to 1,605 last year, also shows that member states' surveillance capacities are improving year on year and that European consumers are better protected than ever before.

According to the report, toys were by far the most notified product category in 2007, confirming that child safety is a top-ranking priority for market surveillance authorities, although motor vehicles, electrical goods and cosmetics also featured prominently in the Rapex system.

Once again, China was the country of origin in the case of more than half of all risky products found (700 notifications). The Commission said this can be partly explained by the high number of products imported into the EU from China and the intensified focus of market surveillance authorities on Chinese products. The 2007 Rapex report also shows that the gap between the most frequently notifying countries and those with the lowest number of notifications significantly narrowed last year, showing a more even participation in the Rapex system among the countries involved.

This is confirmed by the fact that the total share of the five most active countries amounted to 61 per cent in 2006 but only to 44 per cent in 2007.

Germany was the most active member state in the Rapex system (163 notifications), followed by Greece (115 notifications), Slovakia (114 notifications), Hungary (109 notifications) and Spain (108 notifications).

According to Ms Kuneva, Malta and Bulgaria will this year benefit from specialised training on the Rapex system for market surveillance inspectors.