Brussels, 21/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Provisions in directives ensuring the free movement of goods in nine key sectors, such as electric and electronic goods, lifts and civil explosives, are to be aligned to improve product safety.
In order to end differences in EU law which complicate life for companies, the Commission wants to align some provisions of nine directives with model provisions developed at EU level and covering a wide range of goods to ensure better product safety. The sectors concerned are electrical and electronic products, lifts, measuring instruments, civil explosives, pyrotechnic articles and equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. The amendments relate to definitions of, for example, “manufacturer”, “making available on the market”, “CE marking”, the obligations of economic operators, traceability requirements, conformity assessment bodies and procedures, CE marking, etc. The Commission proposes to align the following texts: - the Low Voltage Directive: Directive 2006/95/EEC; - the Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive: Directive 2004/108/EC; - the Simple Pressure Vessels Directive: Council Directive 2009/105/EC; - the Measuring Instruments Directive: Directive 2004/22/EC; - the Non-automatic Weighing Instruments Directive: Directive 2009/23/EC; - the Civil Explosives Directive: Council Directive 93/15/EEC; - the Pyrotechnic Articles Directive: Directive; - the ATEX Directive: Directive 94/9/EC on equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres; - the Lifts Directive: Directive 95/16/EC.
Customs and market surveillance officers will now be better able to better check the safety of products using more effective tools. In addition, member states can improve the supervision of monitoring bodies that check the conformity of products with EU law by, for example, ensuring that the CE marking has been properly applied by manufacturers. In the future, producers, importers and distributors will profit from uniform trading conditions. At the same time, this process will further improve the safety of products on sale in the EU by strengthening compliance procedures and make it easier to keep non-compliant products off the market, the Commission says in a press release. (EH/transl.rt)