COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION of Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive 2014/30/EU
Date: 2023-01-16
Institutions: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
Subjects: EC conformity marking, electrical equipment, electro-magnetic equipment, electromagnetic interference, free movement of goods, harmonisation of standards, market approval, market supervision, single market

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 12.1.2023  SWD(2023) 8 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION  of  Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive 2014/30/EU {SWD(2023) 7 final}  
 
 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

The evaluation of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (EMCD) 2014/30/EU is carried out as 
part of the Commission's Regulatory Fitness and Performance (REFIT) programme. The objectives of 
the EMCD are facilitating the free movement of electrical equipment across the Union and avoiding 
any electromagnetic disturbance between equipment, which could cause malfunctioning and hinder the 
correct operation of the equipment.  

The evaluation focuses on 14 relevant products covered by the Directive.  The evaluation examines the 
functioning of the Directive, including  its transposition, implementation and enforcement, as well as 
associated  assessment  and  monitoring  procedures.  The  evaluation  assesses  the  performance  of  the 
Directive  according  to  five  criteria:  relevance,  effectiveness,  efficiency,  coherence,  and  EU  added 
value.  

Effectiveness  –  By  requiring  equipment  to  comply  with  an  adequate  level  of  electromagnetic 
compatibility,  the  Directive  has  successfully  reduced  interference  between  electrical  equipment  and 
therewith contributed to the effective functioning of the internal market.  

The Directive has provided a stable legal framework based on harmonised rules and procedures across 
the EU since their adoption in 1989. The essential requirements remained very stable over time with 
only few substantive changes.  

The EMCD was instrumental in ensuring that mostly compatible electronic products were placed on 
the  EU  market.  For  instance,  it  has  incentivised  industry  to  invest  from  the  product  design  stage  in 
preventing electromagnetic disturbance and interference.  

However,  market  surveillance  authorities,  industry  associations,  manufactures  and  radio  amateurs 
observed that too many low-quality, cheap products that are not compliant with the EMCD’s essential 
requirements  are  still  being  sold  in  the  EU,  especially  concerning  goods  ordered  online  in  third 
countries. This suggests a need to reinforce market surveillance and enforcement. 

Whilst  most  stakeholders  agreed  that  there  has  been  considerable  progress  towards  the  EMCD’s 
objectives,  radio  amateurs  expressed  strong  views  that  more  could  be  done  to  prevent  disturbance 
when  implementing  the  Directive,  especially  by  in  standardisation  and  testing  apparatus  and  in 
promoting the wider dissemination of good practices in strengthening EMC and improving immunity. 

Since  1989, the  EMCD  and  its  predecessors  have  successfully  increased the  awareness of  European 
industry for electromagnetic compatibility of electrical equipment, systems and fixed installations. 

The EMCD has also ensured that equipment in the market operates as intended and functions correctly 
by  prompting  manufacturers  to  check  electromagnetic  compatibility  already  during  the  product 
development phase.  

Efficiency – The benefits generated by the EMCD outweigh its costs for each type of stakeholders. 
The  Directive  creates  benefits  for  economic  operators  by  reducing  market  barriers  and  costs  by 
preventing fragmentation across different national regulatory systems. 

The  different  stakeholders  did  not  question  the  affordability  of  the  costs.  Nonetheless,  compliance 
costs – estimated to be between 5% and 10% of total costs – are relatively high as a percentage of total 
production costs, according to industry. Some costs, such as familiarisation with the legal obligations, 
are relatively higher for SMEs.  

The  self-certification  approach  significantly  contributes  to  keeping  conformity  assessment  costs  low 
and grants a certain level of flexibility to economic operators.  

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Relevance – The objectives of the EMCD remain highly relevant, because new electronic equipment 
products are constantly being placed on the EU market. New developments such as many European 
consumers  purchasing  electrical/electronic  products  via  online  creates  new  challenges  for  market 
surveillance  and  enforcement,  while  underlining  the  Directive’s  continued  strong  relevance.  EMC 
experts and industry state that the Directive will remain relevant in the future, because it regulates not 
only  the  electromagnetic  emission  of  the  products,  but  also  the  products’  immunity  against 
interferences. 

However, there were industry concerns that the standardisation efforts for new products (in particular, 
citing  harmonised  standards  in  the  Official  Journal)  need  to  keep  better  pace  with  scientific  and 
technological state of the art.  

Coherence – It is consensus that the EMCD is internally coherent due to its clear legal text.  

Most stakeholders saw the Directive’s definitions as being coherent. Nonetheless, some stakeholders 
perceived  that  the  definition  of  ‘fixed  installation’  could  be  improved.  Some  MSAs  consider  the 
exclusion  of  ‘benign  equipment’  from  the  Directive’s  scope  as  controversial.  This  is  especially 
relevant for low-quality cables, which can generate interference even if they are considered benign. 

Turning  to  external  coherence,  the  common  horizontal  provisions  introduced  through  the  New 
Legislative  Framework  (NLF)  have  facilitated  coherence  between  the  EMCD  and  other  relevant 
Directives by supplying a common set of definitions and obligations for economic operators.  

Most stakeholders agreed that the EMCD and safety directives were coherent. Several experts stressed 
the importance of electromagnetic compatibility and immunity for functional safety.  

Some  stakeholders  expressed  concerns  about  the  coherence  between  the  EMCD  and  the  Radio 
Equipment  Directive.  Even  though those  two  directives  are  mutually  exclusive, some  manufacturers 
remain confused as to which is applicable.  

It  is  clear  to  stakeholders  that  other  sectoral  legislation  that  sets  the  electromagnetic  compatibility 
requirements  and  the  EMCD  are  mutually  exclusive  and  that  economic  operators  should  follow  the 
relevant  sectoral  legislation  rather  than  the  EMCD.  Even  though  coherence  problems  or  specific 
inconsistencies were not identified, some stakeholders perceived a lack of awareness as to which types 
of  products fall under  which  sectoral  legislation (and  therefore  as  to  whether the  EMCD  or  sectoral 
legislation is applicable).  

EU added value – The EMCD has had a high EU added value since its adoption in 1989. Supported 
by harmonised standards, it has strengthened the internal market of electrical equipment by providing 
a stable regulatory framework at EU level. In a counterfactual scenario in which the EMCD did not 
exist,  there  would  have  been  instead  27  different  national  laws  regulating  electromagnetic 
compatibility  in  each  EU  Member  State.  Industry  expressed  a  strong  view  that  manufacturers’ 
international  competitiveness  would  be  severely  undermined  if  each  Member  State  regulated  EMC 
separately. Industry considers the EMCD as having enabled it to expand into global markets, because 
the associated harmonised standards became an accepted reference worldwide. This is perceived to be 
an advantage of the EMCD internationally that it addresses both emissions and immunity, which is not 
the  case  in  other  countries  such  as  the  US,  Canada  and  Japan  that  only  regulate  electromagnetic 
emissions.  

The overall conclusion is that the Directive does not need to be revised. It is still relevant, effective, 
efficient, coherent, and has EU added value. Some stakeholders would find a more precise definition 
of “fixed installations” helpful, and some proposed integrating “benign equipment” into the Directive. 
However, those opinions were not shared widely among the different stakeholders. A clarification in 

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the guidelines, after discussion in the expert group, would be sufficient to address these issues. 

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