Amended proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to electromagnetic compatibility (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty)

2002/0306 (COD)

Amended proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to electromagnetic compatibility

On 9 March 2004, the European Parliament voted in first reading on the amendments tabled on the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to electromagnetic compatibility.

Article 250(2) of the EC Treaty states that as long as the Council has not acted, the Commission may alter its proposal at any time during the procedures leading to the adoption of a Community act.

The Commission hereafter gives its opinion on the amendments adopted by the European Parliament.

1. BACKGROUND

The proposal was transmitted to the Council and to the European Parliament (COM(2002) 759 final - 2002/0306(COD)) on the 24 December 2002

Positive opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee was given on 18 June 2003

On the 10 November 2003, the Council agreed unanimously on a general approach, pending the European Parliament's opinion at first reading, on the proposal for a Directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to electromagnetic compatibility

2. OBJECTIVE OF THE AMENDED COMMISSION PROPOSAL

The proposal for revision maintains the objectives of the existing EMC Directive, and its field of application. It follows the regulatory concept of the New Approach and, for the most part, uses concepts already found in the current Directive.

The text of the proposal is recommended in pursuit of the following objectives:

- Clarification of scope by means of improved definitions and more clearly defined exclusions;

- Treatment of fixed installations by means of a more appropriate regulatory regime;

- Enhanced clarity through more detailed essential requirements;

- Clarification of the role of harmonised standards;

- Simplification of the conformity assessment procedures, reduced to a single procedure for apparatus;

- Cutting "red tape" and increasing manufacturers' choice by abolishing compulsory third-party intervention where harmonised standards have not been applied but allowing for voluntary involvement of conformity assessment bodies for apparatus in all cases;

- Improved market surveillance by means better traceability of the manufacturer.

The structure and text of the proposal have been adapted to the state of the art introduced by other New Approach Directives adopted since 1989.

3. COMMISSION OPINION ON THE AMENDMENTS ADOPTED BY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

On 9 March 2004, the Rapporteur, Mr Luis BERENGER FUSTER (PES, ES), put forward a report (referenced PE-337.416) containing 38 amendments to the Commission's proposal on behalf of the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, including a number of compromise amendments agreed during the informal contacts between the three Institutions. One more compromise amendment (No 39) was tabled by the PES group

Following the simplified procedure of Article 158, paragraph 2 of the EP's Rule of procedure [1] the report was put to a vote without debate during the sitting of 9 March, which had the following results:

[1] Article 158, paragraph 2 of the EP's Rules of procedure stipulates that, unless at least one-tenth of the members of a Committee object within a set time limit, the report shall be considered adopted by the Committee and shall be submitted to the Parliament's plenary for a vote without debate.

- Amendments 1-15, 17-26, 30, 32-36 and 38 were adopted by the plenary after a single vote.

- Amendment No 39 was adopted after a separate vote.

- Amendments 16, 27-29, 31 and 37 were cancelled.

The Commission finds that all of the adopted Parliament's amendments are acceptable in full, as they clarify and improve upon the Commission proposal, and as they are fully compatible with general approach reached by the Competitiveness Council of 10 November 2003.

4. EXPLANATION OF THE MAIN AMENDMENTS

4.1. Reinforcement of the willingness to specific protect radio services

Amendment 1, implemented in recital 2 reiterates the necessity to protect radio services operating in accordance with ITU regulation, in particular radio broadcast reception and amateur radio service.

4.2. Further clarifications and modification of the scope

Following amendments 2, 14 and 33 of the European Parliament, the Commission removes ready-made connecting devices from the scope of the Directive. As a consequence, reference to ready made connecting devices is removed from recital 11. Furthermore, article 2, paragraph 2, point (b) of the initial proposal defining "ready-made connecting devices" and paragraph 2.3 of Annex I setting out the essential requirements for such devices are removed from the amended proposal.

The amended proposal, in Paragraph 1 of Article 1, unambiguously defines the equipment within the scope of the Directive, following the wording of amendment 5. Additionally, the amended proposal clarifies the definition of equipment excluded from the scope of the Directive:

- aeronautical equipment by referencing Regulation (EC) No. 1592/2002 in article 1.2(b), following the wording of amendment 6;

- equipment used by radio-amateur by means of a general rewording of article 1.2(c), following the wording of amendment 7;

- benign equipment by modifying article 1.3(a), following the wording of amendment 8;

- equipment covered fully or partially by other directives by rewording article 1.4, following the wording of amendment 9.

4.3. Improvement of definitions

The amended proposal introduces new definitions and further refines the existing ones:

- Article 2.1(e) clarifies the notion of "electromagnetic disturbance" by reintroducing the definition currently laid down in Directive 89/336/EEC, following the wording of amendment 10;

- Article 2.1(fa) introduces the notion of "safety purposes", which is also in article 4.2, following the wording of amendment 11;

- Article 2.1(ga) introduces the notion of "electromagnetic environment". The definition used is a direct extract from the definition in the International Electrotechnic Committee (IEC) (IEC50, International Electrotechnic Vocabulary (IEV), Chapter 161: Electromagnetic compatibility, 2.1.5), following the wording of amendment 13.

- Article 2.2(aa) introduces the notion of mobile installation following the wording of amendment 15. Mobile installations are considered as apparatus.

4.4. Clarification of the role of harmonised standards (amendments 3, 12, 19, 20, 38)

The amended proposal further clarifies the role of harmonised standards by restructuring the text. In detail, the introduced amendments are as follows:

- Recital 13 clarifies the content of harmonised standards and how to apply harmonised standards, following the wording of amendment 3

- All elements concerning harmonised standards are laid down in article 6 and annex V is subsequently suppressed, implementing in full amendments 12,19,20 and 38.

4.5. Clarification of the scope of special measures that can be taken by Member States.

Article 4.2 is amended to introduce the obligation for Member States adopting those special measures laid down in this article to notify such measures to the Commission and, once accepted, for these to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, following the wording of amendment 17.

4.6. Demonstration of non-CE marked products at trade fairs

Article 4.3 is amended to allow manufacturer to perform demonstrations of non CE-marked equipment at trade fairs. The amended proposal further lays down the obligation for manufacturers to ensure that no disturbance will occur in such cases, following the wording of amendment 18

4.7. Information requirements

The amended proposal creates a specific article for laying down information requirements, which are thus removed from the list of essential requirements, implementing in full amendment 23.

4.8. Clarification of the Conformity assessment procedure

The amended proposal restructures the provisions on conformity assessment, implementing amendments 34, 35, 39. This does not affect fundamentally the Commission's proposal.

Article 7 of the amended proposal gives the possibility to apply either the conformity assessment procedure laid down in Annex Ia, which is based on a self-assessment by the manufacturer, and, on a voluntary basis, to apply additionally the procedure laid down in Annex Ib, which foresees the intervention of a notified body.

4.9. Further essential requirements for fixed installations

Annex I of the amended proposal requires the responsible person to document the engineering practices used for the installation of fixed installations to meet the essential requirement of the EMC Directive and, on a duly substantiated request, to make these documents available to market surveillance authorities, following the wording of amendment 32. Following the wording of amendment 30, equipment intended for incorporation in a fixed installation and not otherwise commercially available may be exempted from compliance with protection and information requirements. Recital 20 is clarified following the wording of amendment 4.

4.10. Clarification of the role of the notified body

Article 11 of the amended proposal requires Member States to clearly identify the scope of designation of notified bodies, indicating if the scope of designation is limited to certain aspect or apparatus covered by the Directive following the wording of amendment 26. The role of the notified body is to assess the technical file provided by the manufacturer in whole or in part, at the choice of the manufacturer, following the wording of amendment 35.

4.11. Overall consistency of the text

Amendments 21, 22, 24, 25 and 36 are implemented in full to ensure the overall consistency of the text.

5. Conclusion

Having regard to Article 250(2) of the EC Treaty, the Commission modifies its proposal as indicated above, implementing all amendments adopted by the European Parliament.