EC Seeks To Improve Internal Market For Goods

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

16 February 2007

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a broad package of measures to ensure the smoother functioning of the internal market for goods.

The package aims to make it easier for companies, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises, to market products in the European Union while assuring a high level of safety and quality.

Currently, many companies are discouraged from venturing outside their domestic market because they have to prove that their products fulfil the requirements of technical rules in other Member States.

For industrial goods which are already subject to EU legislation, the suggestion is to establish a system of market surveillance which is built upon the existing system for consumer products. Furthermore, cooperation between national accreditation bodies should be re-enforced and new rules to enhance confidence and trust in the CE mark are proposed.

A common legal framework, built on simple common definitions and procedures for the marketing of industrial products, will serve as a toolbox for future sectoral legislation.

The new measures will have an impact on 22 industrial sectors, representing a market volume of around 1500 billion euros a year, and include the following:

• Strengthening and modernising the conditions for the safe marketing of a wide range of industrial products in the EU. The Commission wants to introduce better rules on market surveillance to protect consumers from unsafe products, including third country imports. It proposes to enhance confidence in conformity assessments of products through enforced accreditation of conformity assessment bodies.
• Establishing more stringent and effective procedures to make the marketing of goods in other Member States easier.
• Free movement of goods: a new procedure between national authorities and economic operators facilitating the sale of products which are already marketed in accordance with the rules in one Member State will be put in place.
• Burden of proof: a Member State that intends to refuse market access will be obliged to give precise and detailed objective reasons for doing so.
• Product Contact Points will be established in all Member States. Their main task will be to help enterprises which are faced with trade restrictions.

Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen, responsible for Enterprise and Industry including the internal market for goods, announced that:

"The internal market is our biggest asset in view of promoting growth and jobs in the EU. There is still much room to improve the free movement of goods."

"That's why I'm proposing to unburden industry by placing more responsibility on the authorities of Member States and encouraging dialogue and cooperation. We will do so in a way that consumers will be better protected as well. More freedom for business to trade within Europe needs to be balanced with more responsibility and risk management."

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