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)
Date: 2004-06-18
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EC conformity marking, administrative formalities, approximation of laws, electrical equipment, electromagnetic interference, free movement of goods, harmonisation of standards, technical regulations

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 18.6.2004 
COM(2004) 446 final 

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. 

(presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty) 

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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; 

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–  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 
procedure1 the report was put to a vote without debate during the sitting of 9 March, 
which had the following results:  

–  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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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–  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. 

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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. 

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