WRITTEN QUESTION P-2295/97 by Gary Titley (PSE) to the Commission (26 June 1997)

Subject: Safety of imported household electrical goods

What regulations does the Low Voltage Directive provide to ensure the safety of household electrical goods imported into the EU? Do these regulations include a requirement for importers to test for safety representative samples of the goods as supplied to them - as opposed to testing simply manufacturers' samples?

If there is no requirement for importers to have their goods tested in this way, will the Commission propose a revision of the Low Voltage Directive to ensure that the first importers into the EU are required to carry out their own independent safety tests at EU-approved testing houses, with failure to do so becoming illegal in Community law?

Answer given by Mr Bangemann on behalf of the Commission (10 July 1997)

The 'low voltage' Directive ((Council Directive 73/23/EEC of 19.2.1973 (OJ L 77, 26.3.1973), as modified by Council Directive 93/68/EEC of 22.7.1993 (OJ L 220, 30.3.1993). )) sets out rules aimed at ensuring the safety of all electrical equipment placed on the Community market. It applies both to equipment imported into the Community from third countries and to domestically produced equipment, without distinction.

The main provisions of the Directive are that the electrical equipment must comply with safety requirements listed in Annex I of the Directive. In order to ensure compliance, the manufacturer may either apply harmonised European standards (or other standards under conditions defined in the Directive, when harmonised European standards do not exist) or adopt his own technical solutions, in accordance with good engineering practices, and that the manufacturer must have an internal production control, including all measures necessary in order that the manufacturing process ensure compliance of the products with the requirements of the Directive. Technical documentation, enabling the conformity of the electrical equipment to the requirements of the Directive to be assessed, must be established by the manufacturer and kept on Community territory at the disposal of the national authorities for inspection purposes for a period of at least 10 years after the last product has been manufactured. A declaration of conformity, established by the manufacturer, must be kept together with the technical documentation.

Each product to be placed on the Community market must bear the 'CE' marking indicating compliance with the Directive requirements.

In the case of imported products, the responsibility for keeping the conformity declaration and the technical documentation within the Community territory belongs to the manufacturer's authorised representative in the Community, if any, or the importer. However, the responsibility to ensure, through appropriate design and testing, that the product is in compliance with the safety requirements of the Directive belongs always to the manufacturer, even when established outside the Community.

Neither domestically produced equipment nor imported equipment have to be tested by retailers or importers. In both cases, national market surveillance authorities are responsible for checking, through appropriate surveillance programmes, that the equipment placed on the market is in compliance with the Directive requirements. Procedures and criteria for market surveillance are the responsibility of the Member States.

The Commission does not consider that it would be justified and consistent with the approach of the Directive to oblige importers systematically to test, at Community-approved testing houses, imported electrical equipment that they place on the Community market.