WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/EU/21 
27 February 2012  
 (12-1102) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  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:  mailto:eu-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 [X], 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):  Equipment and protective 
systems intended for use in poten tially explosiv e atmospheres. 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Proposal for a Directive 
of the European Parliament and of the C ouncil on the harmonisation of the laws of the 
Member States relating to equi pment and protective systems intended for use in potentially 
explosive atmospheres (COM(2011) 772) (97 pa ges, in English, French and Spanish). 
6. Description of content:  This Commission Proposal for a Directive of the European 
Parliament and of the Council concerns the alig nment of the current European legislation on 
equipment and protective systems intended fo r use in potentially explosive atmospheres 
(known as ATEX equipment), th e ATEX Directive 94/9/EC, to the provisions of the New 
Legislative Framework, in particular to the Decision No 768/2008/EC. There are no 
substantial changes with regard to the curre nt ATEX Directive 94/9/EC, keeping unchanged 
the key contents on scope, categorisation, e ssential health and safe ty requirements, and 
conformity assessm ent procedures.  
This Commission Proposal is part of a package of  9 European Directives to be aligned to the 
New Legislative Framework. G/TBT/N/EU/21 
Page 2  
 
  7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Protection of human health and safety, ensuring free movement for the products to which the 
Directive applies in the European Union terr itory, and providing for harmonised requirements 
and procedures to establish compliance.  
The essential health and safety requirements of the ATEX Directive are specific with respect 
to: 
- potential ignition sources of electrical an d non-electrical equipm ent intended for use 
 in potentially explosive atmos pheres, to prevent explosions; 
- autonomous protective systems intended  to come into operation following an 
 explosion with the prime objective to halt the explosion immediately and/or limit the  effects of explosion flames and pressures; 
- safety devices intended to contribute to th e safe functioning of such equipment with 
 respect to ignition source and to the safe functioning of autonomous protective 
 systems; - components with no autonomous function e ssential to the safe functioning of such 
 equipment or autonomous protective systems. 
8. Relevant documents:   Directive 94/9/EC of the Europe an Parliament and the Council of 
23 March 1994 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning equipment 
and protective systems intended for use in pot entially explosive at mospheres (OJ L 100, 
19.4.1994, p. 1–29) (ATEX Directive) 
http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ /LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1994L0009:20031120:en:PDF  
Decision No 768/2008/EC of the European Parlia ment and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on a 
common framework for the marketing of pr oducts, and repealing Council Decision 
93/465/EEC (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 82–128) 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2008:218:0082:0128:EN:PDF  
Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 
setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the 
marketing of products and repe aling Regulation (EEC) No 339/93 (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 
30-47) (New Legislative Framework) (No tified under reference G/TBT/N/EEC/152) 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2008:218:0030:0047:EN:PDF  
New Legislative Framework for ma rketing of products - website 
"http://ec.europa.eu/enterpris e/policies/single-m arket-goods/regulat ory-policies-common-
rules-for-products/new-legis lative-framework/index_en.htm " 
European Harmonised Standards (includi ng ISO and IEC references) for ATEX 
"http://ec.europa.eu/ent erprise/policies/europe an-standards/documents/ harmonised-standards-
legislation/list-references/equipme nt-explosive-atmosp here/index_en.htm " 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    End of 2012 
20 days from publication in  the Official Journal 
of the EU (about a month after adoption approx.). Applicable 2 years after adoption.  G/TBT/N/EU/21 
 Page 3 
 
 
  10. Final date for comments:  90 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [  ], or address, 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:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
The text is available on the EU-TBT Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  and at 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0772:FIN:EN:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0772:FIN:FR:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0772:FIN:ES:PDF  
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2012/tbt/EEC/12_0743_00_e.pdf