COMMISSION DECISION
of 27 July 2011
on the safety requirements to be met by European standards for gymnastic equipment pursuant to Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2011/479/EU)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 December 2001 on general product safety (1), and in particular Article 4(1)(a) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Directive 2001/95/EC provides for European standards to be established by the European standardisation bodies. Such standards should ensure that products satisfy the general safety requirement of that Directive.
(2)
Under Directive 2001/95/EC, a product is to be presumed safe when it conforms to voluntary national standards transposing the European standards, the references of which have been published by the Commission in the Official Journal of the European Union.
(3)
Article 4 of Directive 2001/95/EC lays down the procedure for drawing up the European standards. Under that procedure, the Commission is to determine the specific safety requirements which the European standards should satisfy and, subsequently, on the basis of those requirements, to give mandates to the European standardisation bodies to draw up those standards.
(4)
The Commission is to publish the references of the European standards adopted in that way in the Official Journal of the European Union. Under the second subparagraph of Article 4(2) of Directive 2001/95/EC, the references to the European standards which have been adopted by the European standardisation bodies before the entry into force of that Directive may be published in the Official Journal of the European Union even in the absence of a Commission mandate, if those standards ensure compliance with the general safety requirement laid down in that Directive.
(5)
By its Decision 2005/718/EC (2) the Commission published the references of seven European standards concerning the safety of gymnastic equipment in the Official Journal of the European Union
(6)
The seven European standards on the safety of gymnastic equipment concerned by Decision 2005/718/EC are not supported by a Commission mandate adopted in accordance with Article 4(1) of Directive 2001/95/EC.
(7)
One of those standards, EN 913:1996, has been replaced by a new version, EN 913:2008. This new version was adopted after the entry into force of the Directive 2001/95/EC and its reference cannot, as a consequence, be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in the absence of a Commission mandate including specific safety requirements.
(8)
In order to assess the conformity of the new version and of any subsequent versions of the European standards for gymnastic equipment with the general safety requirement of Directive 2001/95/EC, it is necessary to re-establish the procedure laid down in Article 4 of that Directive.
(9)
The Commission should therefore determine specific safety requirements for gymnastic equipment with a view to mandating the European standardisation bodies to develop relevant European standards for gymnastic equipment on the basis of those requirements.
(10)
Once the relevant standards are available, and provided that the Commission decides to publish their references in the Official Journal of the European Union, according to the procedure laid down in Article 4(2) of Directive 2001/95/EC, gymnastic equipment is to be presumed to conform to the general safety requirements of that Directive, as far as the safety requirements covered by the standards are concerned.
(11)
The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee set up under Article 15 of Directive 2001/95/EC,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
For the purposes of this Decision ‘gymnastic equipment’ means equipment used for training, exercising or competition purposes, involving group and individual exercise. This equipment either stands on the floor or is fixed to the ceiling or a wall or other fixed structure. It is either permanently installed or able to be moved and modified for use.
Article 2
The specific safety requirements for the products referred to in Article 1 to be met by European standards pursuant to Article 4 of Directive 2001/95/EC are set out in the Annex to this Decision.
Article 3
This Decision shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Done at Brussels, 27 July 2011.