Opinion on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive relating to the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances - consolidated text (94/C 133/05)

On 20 January 1994 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 100A of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on the abovementioned proposal.

The Section for Protection of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Affairs, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 1 February 1994. The Rapporteur was Mr Hilkens.

At its 313th Plenary Session (meeting of 23 February 1994), the Economic and Social Committee unanimously adopted the following Opinion.

1. The sole purpose of the Commission proposal is to consolidate the existing Directive on the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances. This Directive dates from 27 June 1967 and has since been amended 28 times.

The proposed consolidation is intended to help make the EC provisions in this field more accessible.

The explanatory memorandum to the proposal states that this is a legislative consolidation, i.e. the new Directive will replace the relevant existing Directives. The substance of the consolidated text accords completely with the texts adopted by the Council.

2. The Committee welcomes the Commission proposal because it contributes to the legibility of the rules adopted in the EC over recent years in this field. Since the Commission states that no substantive changes have been made to the existing Directives, the Committee approves the proposal.

3. Although this does not affect the content of the proposal, the Committee recommends that, for grammatical reasons, the Commission amend 'gestaaft' to 'gestaafd' in Article 19(1), line 9, page 26, of the Dutch version.

Done at Brussels, 23 February 1994.

The Chairman

of the Economic and Social Committee

Susanne TIEMANN