WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1555/98 by Susan WADDINGTON to the Commission. Harmonization of safety standards for bicycles
C 402/144 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 22. 12. 98 (98/C 402/191) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1555/98 by Susan Waddington (PSE) to the Commission (19 May 1998) Subject: Harmonization of safety standards for bicycles It has been brought to my attention that the application for safety standards to bicycles differs widely from Member State to Member State. In certain Member States, lights must be fitted to a bicycle as a standard pre-sale fitment while in others, a front brake is not mandatory. In many Member States, bicycles are marketed as toys rather than transport. Given that the use of the bicycle is being encouraged as an áenvironmentally friendlyí mode of transport, and given, therefore, that the number of bicycles in use in the EU will increase, what measures is the Commission considering to harmonize product-safety standards in the growing internal bicycle market, in order to ensure that consumers are guaranteed the same minimum safety standards in all Member States? Answer given by Mr Bangemann on behalf of the Commission (26 June 1998) In contrast to two or three-wheel motor vehicles there are no Commission regulations that are intended to remove technical barriers to the trade in bicycles. The trade circles directly involved are currently examining the suitability of sending a file to the Commission which clearly shows that such barriers actually do exist and that they prevent the free movement of bicycles within the Community. The Commission will examine that file with particular attention and, if appropriate, will not fail to put forward those measures that it feels to be most appropriate. However, the Honourable Memberís attention is drawn to Council Directive 92/59/EEC of 29 June 1992 on general product safety (1) which applies to products for which there are no specific Community safety requirements. That directive lays down, inter alia, safety criteria to be met by products placed on the market by manufacturers. It also enables the Member States to take specific action where a product constitutes a hazard to health or consumer safety. (1) OJ L 228, 11. 8. 1992. (98/C 402/192) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1563/98 by Antoni GutiØrrez Díaz (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (20 May 1998) Subject: Projects under the URB-AL programme It appears that four local authorities were nominated as candidates to act as head-city for Telematics Network No 3, Democracy in the Cityí, as part of the URB-AL programme co-financed by the Commission. These four candidates were: Issy-les-Moulineaux (France), Porto Alegre (Brazil), Salt (Spain) and Villa María (Argentina). Of these four cities, only the first two met the criteria for eligibility and were retained for the purposes of a technical proposal. The city of Porto Alegre has received international recognition as a model of civic participation through the áparticipative budgetí experiment, which has attracted the attention of the main international cooperation organizations (World Bank, IDB, UNDP and others). The network of local authorities submitted by Porto Alegre also included some of the most outstanding experiments in civic participation in Latin America, such as Villa Salvador in Peru