News At the invitation of the Swiss delegation, the Standing Committee on European Watchmaking (CPHE) convened a meeting on 1st May in Basel attended by representatives of watchmaking associations from Germany, France, Italy, and for Switzerland, the FH.
Chaired by Jean-Daniel Pasche, the CPHE firstly welcomed Alain Marietta, representative of apiah, and Claude Vuillemez, of Richemont International, as new members of the Swiss delegation. Uwe Staib, the newly elected president of the German association BV Schmuck + Uhren, also took part in the work of the CPHE for the first time.
An inter-trade joint committee constituted as a result of the 1967 watchmaking free-trade agreement between Switzerland and the European Community, the CPHE was formally set up in 1977, in Frankfurt. Its purpose is to deliberate on all questions of general interest affecting the European watch industry, and to represent and defend its interests in dealings with international organisations, national public authorities and professional associations. It also reports on issues dealt with by the EU - Switzerland Joint Watch and Clock Committee, which administers the watchmaking agreements of 1967 and 1972.
In Basel, the CPHE turned its attention firstly to the Swissness project, currently being debated in the Federal chambers, and noted that significant progress had been made since the November 2012 meeting in Dresden: confirmation by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of States of its position in favour of a minimum rate of Swiss value of 60% applicable to industrial products (15 November 2012), vote by the Council of States setting a minimum rate of 50% (10 December), confirmation of the initial position of the Legal Affairs Committee of the National Council in favour of a minimum rate of 60% (January 2013), and approval by the National Council of a rate of 60% by a vote of 124 to 67 (11 March 2013). In view of the differences that persist and in accordance with procedure, the matter will again go before the Council of States where a vote is likely to take place during the forthcoming summer session.
The CPHE then reviewed the different regulatory subjects appearing on its agenda:
- Joint interventions to national standardisation committees requesting a redrafting of the guidelines of standard EN 1811 to confirm the rate of release of nickel of 0.88µg/cm2/week as the sole normative reference;
- Interventions in favour of maintaining, in the guidelines of directive 2006/66/CE (batteries) the possibility of battery replacement by competent technical services and by the consumer;
- Examination of the French bill proposing compulsory indication of the carbon footprint of products and their packaging (environmental display);
- Scope and ramifications of the French bill tabling an extension of protected geographical indications (PGI) to manufactured products.
May 08, 2013
