Relief for Yorkshire's Charity Shops

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 17th Oct 2000

The future of charity shops in Yorkshire & the Humber looks more secure after Euro-MPs in Brussels supported moves to exempt them from new EU requirements to provide information on the goods they sell.

Charity shops said that they would not be able to provide information about the origin of second hand goods, and so could not fully comply with a new proposal aimed at making it easier to recall dangerous products.

Members of the European Parliament's Consumer Affairs Committee, which includes MEPs from every EU country, today (Tuesday) voted unanimously to exempt the shops from rules under the 'General Product Safety Directive' insisting that they provide product information if required by trading standards officers.

Yorkshire & the Humber Lib Dem MEP, Diana Wallis, was one of the supporters of the successful move and claimed that good sense had now prevailed following a disappointing vote in her Legal Affairs Committee yesterday where this proposal had been voted down.

Commenting after the meeting, Diana said: "Everyone wants to protect consumers and the general sense of the European Commission's plan is widely supported.

"But charity shops are a special case. They are unique to Britain and Ireland, and I'm pleased that MEPs from across Europe have recognised this and rallied to ensure that their future is secure."

The European Commission has indicated that it will support measures to ensure that charity shops are exempt from the product information provisions of the new law.

The measure still has some hurdles to cross. The European Parliament in Strasbourg will vote a report on the Directive during the week beginning 13 November.