. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/178 
16 January 2008 
 (08-0195) 
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 COMMUNITIES
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:    
European Commission 
EC-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):   Lighters 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Draft Commission 
Decision on specific child safety requirements to be met by European standards for lighters pursuant to Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (5 pages, 
in English). 
6. Description of content:   This draft Commission Decision lays down the specific child 
safety requirements to be met by European st andards under the provisions of Article 4 of 
Directive 2001/95/EC. It provides definitions of a lighter, a child-resistant lighter and a child-appealing lighter, and determines that lighters shall be child-resistant and not be 
appealing to children under 51 months of ag e. Semi-luxury and luxury lighters are excluded 
from the Decision on the basis of a number of technical criteria. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Commission Decision 2006/502/EC requires Member States to take measures to ensure that only lighters which are child-resistant are placed on the market and to prohibit the placing 
on the market of novelty lighters.  The Decision was established under Article 13 of Directive 2001/95/EC on General Product Safety  (GPSD) and is valid for a period of 12 
months.  It may be confirmed for add itional periods not exceeding one year.   
In order to come to a more permanent soluti on, the European Commission is working on the 
revision of European standard EN 13869:2002: Lighters - Child-resistance for lighters - 
Safety requirements and test methods.  G/TBT/N/EEC/178 
Page 2  
 
  To achieve this, under the provisions of article 4 of Directive 2001/95/EC specific child 
safety requirements for lighters should be drawn up, with the aim of requesting the standardisation bodies to revise EN 13869, according to the procedure laid down in 
Directive 98/34/EC for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations, and to allow the publication in th e Official Journal of the revised standard. 
Once the reference to the revised standard h as been published in the Official Journal, 
lighters manufactured in compliance with the sta ndard shall be presumed to conform to the 
general safety requirement of Directive 2001/95 /EC on general product safety, as far as the 
specific child safety requirements covere d by the standard are concerned. 
8. Relevant documents:   Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the 
Council of 3 December 2001 on general product safety 
Commission Decision 2006/502/EC requiring Member States to take measures to ensure 
that only lighters which are child-resistant ar e placed on the market and to prohibit the 
placing on the market of novelty lighters 
Commission Decision 2007/231/EC amending Decision 2006/502/EC requiring Member 
States to take measures to ensure that only lig hters which are child-resistant are placed on 
the market and to prohibit the placing on the market of novelty lighters 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:   }First quarter 2008 
10. Final date for comments:   60 days from circulation by the WTO Secretariat 
11. Texts 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 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point Fax: +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail: ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu
 
The text is available on the EC-TBT Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/    
and  
http://members.wto.org/crnattach ments/2008/tbt/EEC/08_0119_00_e.pdf