. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/313 
8 February 2010  
 (10-0693) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  EUROPEAN UNION
  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/
  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Electric and electronic 
equipment as defined under Articl e 3(a) of Directive 2002/95/EC. 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Draft Commission 
Decision amending, for the purposes of adapting to scientific and technical progress, the 
Annex to Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards 
exemptions for applications containing lead , mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, 
polybrominated biphenyls or polybrominated diphen yl ethers (11 pages, in English).     
6. Description of content:  Through this draft Commission De cision, having carried out the 
requisite technical and scientif ic assessment, the Commission pr oposes to review exemptions 
added in the Annex to Directive 2002/95/EC thr ough successive amendments since the entry 
into force of the substance ban (1 July 2006).  
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:  The 
draft Decision aims to  adapt Directive 2002/95/EC to tech nical and scientific progress. 
According to Directive 2002/95/EC exemptions from the substance ban laid down in Article 
4(1) of that Directive can be granted by the Commission when the elim ination of substances 
from certain applications is technically or sc ientifically impracticable. The Commission has 
the obligation to review those exemptions at least every four years, with the purpose of 
deleting them, where substitution of substances in those applications has become practicable.  G/TBT/N/EEC/313 
Page 2  
 
  8. Relevant documents:   Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 
of 27 January 2003 on the restriction of the use of  certain hazardous subs tances in electrical 
and electronic equipment, OJEU L37 of 13 February 2003, p. 19 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2003:037:0019:0023:EN:PDF
 
Relevant successive amendments: Comm ission Decisions 2005/618/EC, 2005/717/EC, 
2005/747/EC, 2006/310/EC, 2006/690/EC, 2006/ 691/EC 2006/692/EC, 2008/385/EC, 
2009/428/EC, and 2009/443/EC.  
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/legis_en.htm     
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:   }June 2010 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from: National enquiry point [  ], or addre ss, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 
E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu The text is available on the EU-TBT Website :  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/ 
  
And can also be downloaded here: 
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2010/tbt/eec/10_0491_00_e.pdf