Huhne welcomes reprieve from threat to British Hallmarking

5.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 26th Nov 2003

Hampshire Euro-MP Chris Huhne has welcomed news that the proposed EU Hallmarking Directive, which was due to be approved by the EU Competitiveness Council this Thursday, has been quietly taken off the agenda. It is now unlikely to return for the foreseeable future.

Welcoming this revelation, Mr Huhne said:

"This is a victory for common sense. These proposals have been languishing for more than a decade and only re-emerged this year when Italy took over the Presidency of the European Union. This week's meeting was Silvio Berlusconi's last chance to get it discussed before handing the Presidency over to the Irish.

"It is highly unlikely that the Irish will want to push these proposals forward as there is very little support for it across Europe. The same goes for the Dutch who take over in July 2004. So we can be reasonably sure that barring any major upsets, this directive will be off the agenda for at least the next 12 months, and probably even longer than that."

The proposed EU Directive on Precious Metals sought to introduce community-wide regulations on hallmarking. The British jewellery industry objected to the directive on the grounds that the proposed lax and poorly enforced rules would be bad for both consumers and the British industry.

"This directive does not include sufficient safeguards to ensure quality standards or traceability. The British Hallmarking tradition has worked well for 700 years and there is no reason to compromise it in this way now," Chris Huhne said.

ENDS