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Document 92002E002677
WRITTEN QUESTION E-2677/02 by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission. Fire safety.
WRITTEN QUESTION E-2677/02 by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission. Fire safety.
WRITTEN QUESTION E-2677/02 by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission. Fire safety.
Úř. věst. C 88E, 8.4.2004, pp. 291–292
(ES, DA, DE, EL, EN, FR, IT, NL, PT, FI, SV)
- Date of document:
- 24/09/2002; Den přenosu
- Date of dispatch:
- 24/09/2002
- Date of reply:
- 15/10/2002; Písemná odpověď
- Author:
- Evropský parlament, Not available
- Form:
- Písemný dotaz
- Addressee:
- Evropská komise
- Parliamentary term:
- páté volební období
- Political group:
- Skupina Evropské liberální, demokratické a reformní strany
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- Link
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- EUROVOC descriptor:
|
8.4.2004 |
EN |
Official Journal of the European Union |
CE 88/291 |
(2004/C 88 E/0298)
WRITTEN QUESTION E-2677/02
by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission
(24 September 2002)
Subject: Fire safety
What role does the Commission have in promoting best practice between Member States and their fire authorities with a view to reducing death and injury from fire?
Does the Commission have any plans to introduce new building design regulations intended to provide all EU citizens with minimum standards for protection from fire-related injury by requiring the installation of such devices as smoke detectors and sprinkler systems?
Does the Commission recognise national or regional fire brigades in each Member State as the lead bodies to deal with issues of community fire safety, and are they treated as such for the purpose of consultation about health and safety issues relating to fire?
Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission
(15 October 2002)
The Community has no general competence in fire safety. However, the Community does contribute to fire safety through several directives and initiatives taken under different Community policies, in accordance with the subsidiarity principle.
As a direct consequence, the structure and the competences of national, regional or local fire brigades vary from one Member State to the other, and the Commission has no competence to establish common rules on which all Member States could agree.
In the area of civil protection, the Commission has taken several initiatives to allow fire brigades to identify their most urgent needs. As far as the promotion of best practices between Member States is concerned, within the Community action programme for civil protection, Sweden has recently been mandated as the lead country for a fire prevention project that aims to identify best practice between Member States.
The Commission does not have plans to make mandatory the installation of smoke detectors and sprinkler systems. In many of the Member States such provisions exist already. However, fire alarm/detection, fixed fire-fighting and fire and smoke controlproducts are covered by Council Directive 89/106/EEC of 21 December 1988 on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to construction products (1). Under this Directive there are common instruments for labelling the safety in case of fire characteristics of construction products. These are the ‘Euroclasses’ for reaction to and resistance to fire, which will allow the performances of products to be easily recognised in all Member States.
Only Member States have the prerogative to designate which bodies should deal with Community fire safety issues. However, at Community level, relevant initiatives are usually discussed with all the interested parties represented at European level.
