Brussels, 27/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 27 March, the European Commission adopted proposals to replace two EU directives governing the safety of personal protective equipment and cableway installations with directly applicable regulations. This means that 56 pieces of national legislation, running into several hundred pages, can be scrapped.
With this move, the European Commission aims to “make it easier to conduct business in the EU”. Companies will have to consult just one legislative text for each field, and this text will be available in their language.
Whilst ensuring that the legislation continues to guarantee a high level of safety, this proposal will make life easier for businesses marketing industrial products in the EU market.
Safety helmets, ear protectors, safety shoes, life jackets and also bicycle helmets, sunglasses and high-visibility vests are examples of personal protective equipment (PPE). The changes made by the proposal aim to shore up the safety of equipment used privately to protect users from heat, humidity and water.
The proposal expands the scope of application of the provisions to include PPE for private use and mass-produced PPE as well as PPE aimed solely at professional users. The updated legislation will help to guarantee that products designed to protect the user from certain risks make good on their claims (for example, statements such as: this product protects “against heat of up to 100°C”, “from UVA/UVB rays”, “against noise”, etc). It will also be easier for producers of bespoke PPE to comply with conformity assessment procedures.
Cableway installations are designed to transport people (funicular railways, cable cars, gondola lifts, chair lift and drag lifts). According to the Commission, the proposal will improve the functioning of the single market of the EU for safety components and cableway installation sub-systems. The proposal, which takes account of technological progress in this field, tackles the design of new installations both for transport and for leisure activities. However, cableway installations designed exclusively for leisure (for instance, those used in theme parks or on fairgrounds) will not be covered by the proposal. These two proposals come as part of the global initiative aiming to simplify and align legal requirements applicable to industrial products sold on the European market.
As regulations are directly applicable in the member states, this approach means that there is no need to draft national legislation to transpose a European directive. (LC)