Could ‘made in Europe’ become a new labeling trend?

While some industries fight their own battles about “country of origin” labels, it seems that members of European Parliament are pushing for labels for the entire region. According to a news release from the organization, a proposal exists to put this kind of label on most European-made products.

Although the labeling will not be all-inclusive, the proposal does apparently have the support of the majority of the Parliament. The goal is to improve the accountability of products made in the region. By putting definitive labels on items, there can be more safety and better-enforced standards of supply management. The proposal also includes provisions to help label items that are not completely manufactured in one location.

The article features comments from Sirpa Pietikäinen of Finland, who said that the labels will help monitoring.

“This legislation is a major step towards more powerful, coordinated and risk-based pan-European surveillance,” Pietikäinen said. “Better surveillance means safer products for European citizens.” Pietikäinen has also said that unregulated products are a problem that affects most of the European Union and nearly everything manufactured there.

However, not everyone is agreement on this point. Reuters reports that Germany and the U.K. in particular are against the labeling initiative, claiming that the labels would be a burden and make production more difficult.

Making labels that are specific to a region can be a response to legal strictures like this, or to other regulatory prompts. It is necessary for companies to have everything they need on hand to respond with the correct kind of labels for each situation. This can be achieved with an industrial label printer, which can help make these labels at a speed appropriate for wide-scale regional production.