KANBrief 3/10
Although the institutions of the EU endeavour to formulate directives comprehensively and clearly, questions repeatedly arise regarding their application in practice. Interpretation of the texts of New Approach directives is the task of European Commission services and of European bodies. The functions of these services and bodies will be described briefly below.
Commission services
The units within the European Commission with responsibility for certain sectors have the task of ensuring that the relevant directives are applied uniformly throughout Europe. One means by which they do this is by drawing up interpretation documents, such as the recently published guide to application of the Machinery Directive. Specific inquiries can also be made directly through the electronic mailboxes provided for the purpose on the websites of the relevant units. In order for the questions to be answered, the Commission may draw on the relevant Standing Committees or other bodies, such as the coordination groups of the notified bodies (Neutral test bodies which are notified to the EU by the Member States for testing of the conformity of products against the relevant EU directives, where the latter make provision for such testing.).
The answers to questions concerning testing and certification must be consistent, as well as the actual interpretation of the legal texts. Commission staff therefore attend sessions of the coordination groups of notified bodies, and promote the latter’s co-operation. Also importantly, the Commission’s policy officers are important contact points for the standards organizations. Upon request, they hold talks at events dealing with their fields.
Standing Committees
The Commission is responsible for chairing the Standing Committees and running their secretariats. Members of these committees may be appointed only by the Member States, and the committees must be constituted and run in accordance with strict formal rules. At the same time, the Standing Committees for the directives relevant to CE marking generally have only advisory functions. However, the opinion of certain committees (for example for medical devices or construction products) formally has greater weight for decisions taken by the Commission; in other words, it is difficult for the Commission to take a decision contrary to the opinion of these particular Committees. This is not generally an issue, however, since the Commission units seek a consensus with the Standing Committees in any case. It should be noted that not every directive has a corresponding Standing Committee. The PPE Directive, 89/686/ EEC, for example makes no such provision for a Standing Committee; a pragmatic solution has therefore been found in the formal creation of a “PPE Working Group” under the auspices of the Machinery committee.
Working Groups
The actual work of the Standing Committees is generally performed by less formal working groups. Representatives of the standards organizations, notified bodies or industry associations may for example also attend the meetings of such groups. For example, by far the majority of discussions concerning the Machinery Directive are conducted not in the formal Machinery Committee, but in its Working Group.
Whereas the Standing Committee’s documents must generally be treated in confidence, some Working Groups allow interested parties to be added to the “open” distribution list. This means of being kept up to date with the ongoing discussions is however treated differently in the Commission from one sector to the next, and is at the discretion of the responsible service.
Special committees
The Commission services must obtain the opinion of Committee 98/34/EC, “Standards and Technical Regulations”, particularly during the formulation of standardization mandates. One of the key tasks of the committee is that of commenting on formal objections by the Member States to harmonized standards. These comments form the basis of decisions by the Commission and for the issuing to the standards organizations of corresponding mandates for amendments.
The General Product Safety Directive Committee, 2001/95/EC, is also of interest. In contrast to the committees already mentioned, this committee may also issue binding provisions (such as bans, withdrawals and recalls of dangerous products). Since Directive 2001/95/ EC contains no detailed essential requirements, this committee also sets out safety requirements for consumer products on the basis of which standardization mandates are formulated.
Corrado Mattiuzzo
mattiuzzo@kan.de