M&M are fighting for the consumer

Dangerous, dodgy and defective goods targeted by duo
AS Christmas approaches and presents are bought, safety will not be at the forefront of most people’s thoughts as they watch their pennies and struggle through the crowds.

But last year millions of pounds worth of dangerous and toxic toys from China were withdrawn just before Santa piled them on his sleigh, as trading standards teams across Europe acted.

Janice Barker went to Brussels to meet two powerful women charged with cracking down on dangerous, dodgy and defective goods.

YOU don’t mess with McCarthy and Meglena. A bit like the European Parliament’s version of Cagney and Lacey, Oldham’s Euro-MP Arlene McCarthy and Parliamentary Commissioner Meglena Kuneva are out to look after the little man as well as multi-nationals.

But the chairman of the EU’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, and the EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection, use directives, votes, meetings and seminars, rather than force and police badges, to get their way.

Ms McCarthy is well known in the North-West, the region she has represented for eight of her 14 years as an Euro-MP.

But Oldham people may never have heard of Meglena Kuneva, the newest European Commissioner, for the newest department, who began her job in 2007, and who is from one of the latest accession states, Bulgaria.

But like Arlene McCarthy, she holds a PhD, and is a formidable politician, accomplished linguist and committed European.

Her achievements have been recognised by her peers — she was voted European of the Year in November by the European Voice newspaper in Brussels.

Commissioner Kuneva is a tiny, dark-haired woman, slight and attractive, but only a few minutes with her reveals the steely determination beneath the sharp suit.

Chief negotiator for her country in its bid to become part of the EU, she said: “It made me think how to make Europe better for citizens.

“The clear answer is we need more EU powers not less. When people feel let down by their national government, only we can provide help. People write to me about many services with their complaints as a last resort.”

Her background is wide-ranging: international relations and environmental law at Georgetown University, Washington, USA; human rights at the Human Rights Institute, Turku, Finland; environmental law at Oxford, in 1996.

She was assistant professor at the Faculty of Law, Sofia University, and, as a senior legal adviser, she helped to draft a series of Bulgarian laws on the environment and access to information.

She is 50, and married with a son, and has heard the usual arguments about “what did Europe ever do for us?”, to which she said: “If we switched Europe off, you would see how much Europe does in a positive manner, from airports to education, rights to travel and free borders, the right to feel equally well protected, and there is plenty going on every day which depends on Europe.

“We are trying to make common enforcement across many member states and check how the European market works.”

And she works closely with Ms McCarthy, who darts and dashes from one appointment to the next, constantly checking her Blackberry and mobile phone as she juggles appointments and office duties, as well as votes in Parliament.

The day I visited, she had just secured agreement from the hotel industry association, HOTREC, after working with chief fire officers from across Europe, for a code of practice for hotel safety.

It followed the death of two Wakefield children from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Greek apartment and fire deaths at hotels in Cornwall and Bolton.

Two days later she was on constituency duties helping the family of Michael Shields. He is the 21-year-old Liverpool football fan who was jailed in Bulgaria for assault, and whose family are fighting for his release after he was convicted of hitting a Bulgarian bartender with a paving stone after the 2005 European Cup final.

Then she was back to her committee duties as she chaired a seminar for the Imaging Consumables Coalition of Europe (ICCE).

The less than catchy name is for a confederation of high-powered companies such as Epson, Xerox and Brother, who produce cartridges, printer peripherals, ribbons and so on.

Jay Gill, the ICCE chairman, explained how the 41 billion euro industry, which employs 100,000 in Europe, was losing 1.6 billion euro a year in counterfeit and fake products.

And Ms McCarthy told him: “We in the North-West of England have a large manufacturing sector including sport industries and growth industries where we have problems with piracy.

“We are the biggest region for counterfeiting in the UK — in Oldham we have had someone faking money, and elsewhere it is football shirts.

“As for imaging products, we know it is a big problem. We need an initiative from my committee to get this up the agenda in a bigger way.”

So watch out counterfeiters — McCarthy and Meglena have you in their sights, they’re writing reports, and, in Brussels, remember, the pen is mightier than the sword.