Protecting Children

"A child dies every hour in Europe as a result of an injury, but EU prevention strategies could save most of these lives. Allowing children to grow up to be healthy and active contributors to the future economic growth in Europe and also save large costs in treating injuries".Was the warning addressed by European Member of Parliament Christel Schaldemose at the conference held in Strasbourg on June 12, presenting the "Child Safety Report Cards". The event was attended by John Dalli EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy and European Member of Parliament, Malcolm Harbour, Chairman of the Internal Market Committee.Continental alliance. The survey, presented by all the participating Countries, was organized by the European Child Safety Alliance of EuroSafe, in partnership with WHO, Unicef and thanks to the Commission co-funding. The initiative started with 18 countries participating in 2007 and now 31 in 2012, well beyond EU borders. In 2011, it also was awarded the European Award for Health from the European Health Forum Gastein. "Awareness and incentives are necessary to push Member States to reduce incidents among young people and this initiative has the goal of assessing safety levels, highlighting improvements and motivating countries to do always better", said Malcolm Harbour. Safety report cards. The report cards score countries safety policy, adoption, implementation and enforcement in the individual domestic systems. The report card are not only a tool to monitor achieved progress but also a way to spot current policy gaps and highlight priority action for safer environments. "More than 100 proven strategies on safety have been analysed in 12 sectors linked to accidents- explained Christel Schaldemose. "Out of a total score of 60 points differences range from 14 to 40 points". ; only 16 countries ( Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Poland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland) scored a "good" grade, while 13 countries (Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Portugal, Slovakia and Wales) scored "pretty good". "Bad grades for Bulgaria and Greece". Different results. The survey highlighted strong differences and inconsistency in child safety policy implementation. "Two examples for all", the MEP said. "Only 15 countries out of 31 have a national law requiring child resistant packaging of medications and only 16 countries have a national law requiring environmental changes to prevent children from falling out of windows in buildings with more than one storey, but only for new buildings or renovations. " Currently no country improved in every category. However, positive scores have been recorded in reducing accident linked to transport, whereas a lot needs to be done in risks connected to falls, drowning, suffocation and poisoning (for further details go to: http://www.childsafetyeurope.org/reportcards/).New community directives. "Our children are our hope, future and it is our duty to protect their safety also due to their vulnerability", pointed out Commissioner John Dalli. Too many children in Europe continue to die from preventable injuries and accidents and this is exactly the reason why the European Union Health Programme supports initiatives to reduce such accidents. "This year’s program shows improvements as of 2007, but this is still not enough. It is important to put into practice Council recommendations on damage prevention and safety". Consumers must count on better protection from faulty and potentially dangerous products. To respond to the need for more efficacy a review of the directive is underway and should be presented by the end of the year",said Dalli. "We need to strengthen the monitoring system and provide systematic single market consistency", pointed out Schaldemose, the speaker in charge of the review. In line with the above, recently the Commission adopted "The new European Consumer Agenda" with four main goals to build trust, by reinforcing consumer safety, enhancing knowledge, improving enforcement and securing redress.