07/03/2017 (Agence Europe) – The definitive adoption of new rules on the marketing and monitoring of medical devices is getting closer. On Tuesday 7 March, the Council of the European Union approved the compromises reached on both regulations (medical devices and in vitro medical devices) following verification by lawyer-linguists. Readers may recall that these rules tighten up the monitoring of products considered dangerous and give the notifying bodies more powers (these are external public bodies or private companies appointed by the member states to authorise the marketing of "CE" labelled devices) (see EUROPE 11559). The European Parliament is expected to adopt both regulations in April, whereupon they will be published in the Official Journal. The new rules will apply three years after their publication in the case of medical devices, and five years after their publication for in vitro diagnostic medical devices. (SPj)