The draft law on consumer protection, if it’s passed by Parliament, may lead to a legislative vacuum as regards the available instruments for ensuring health protection and a healthy environment for the people, consider experts of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC).

In a news conference at IPN, CAPC expert Iulian Rusu said the bill author, the Ministry of Economy, suggests amending seven legal acts. According to the informative note, the goal of the bill is to adjust the existing legal framework to the draft law on market surveillance. The proposed bill excludes a number of types of products from the regulated area, including drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues and precursors of drugs, medical equipment and medical products for human and veterinary use, motor vehicles and planes. The author says the security of these products should be regulated by special laws.

At this moment, the national legislation contains requirements concerning the security of the mentioned products, but they weren’t adjusted to the provisions of the similar regulations of the EU. For example, based on the Association Agreement, some of the security requirements for vehicles will start to be applied in 2018. Iulian Rusu said the exclusion of these sectors from the regulated area will create a legislative vacuum as the instruments available in the law on the general security of products cannot be applied to these products.

CAPC head Galina Bostan said that if this bill is adopted, those who purchase the mentioned products can acquire products that do not meet the EU standards.

The appraisal was carried out within the project “Harmonization of the legislation with the international standards on human rights”, which is supported financially by the Human Rights Defenders of Sweden.