The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection adopted the report by Barbara WEILER (S&D, DE) on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of radio equipment.
The committee recommended that the position of Parliament adopted in first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission proposal as follows:
Alignment with the New Legislative Framework (NLF) on the Goods Package: Members identified several inconsistencies with the Goods Package, which had already been discussed at European level. In order to align with these results and achieve a coherent legislative framework, the report proposes improvements of the wording.
Members introduced several amendments in order to strike the right balance between effective market surveillance and avoidance of unnecessary administrative burden especially for SMEs.
Scope of the directive:
· Members found it disproportionate to extend the scope of the proposed directive to include a number of products that entail a very limited use of electromagnetic waves for purposes other than communication. These are already present on the market without any major reported problems and are sufficiently regulated by the Low Voltage Directive and and Electromagbetic Compatibility Directive.
· It is important to guarantee the efficient usage of radio spectrum, and Members considered that the equipment capable of receiving radio waves should fall under the scope of proposed Directive.
The report changed the definition of "radio equipment" accordingly.
Postal address: the committee wanted Member States to encourage economic operators to include not only a postal address but also a website address in order to facilitate communication between economic operators, market surveillance authorities and consumers.
The contact details must be in a language easily understood by end-users and market surveillance authorities.
Single EU declaration of conformity: to ensure effective access to information for market surveillance purposes, the information required to identify all applicable Union acts should be available in a single EU declaration of conformity. In order to reduce the administrative burden on economic operators, that single EU declaration of conformity may be a dossier made up of relevant individual declarations of conformity.
Registration of radio equipment: Members deleted the provisions regarding the obligation to register certain radio equipment in a central system, stating that this would result in a disproportionate burden for legitimate economic operators, especially SMEs, whereas the benefits of such a registration system have not been sufficiently demonstrated. Moreover, such a system potentially raises confidentiality issues.
In order to avoid unnecessary burdens for manufactures, especially the SMEs, sample testing should be exercised only upon a request by the competent authorities.
Conformity assessment procedures: manufacturers must demonstrate compliance of radio equipment with the essential requirements set out in the text using certain conformity assessment procedures.
CE marking: Members proposed to provide for the use of electronic labelling, where radio equipment is fitted with an integral screen.
Universal charger: whilst noting that the proposal stresses the advantages of interoperability between radio equipment and accessories such as chargers, Members wanted to see a renewed effort to develop a universal charger. This would simplify the use of radio equipment e.g. mobile phones, reduce waste and costs as well as will consequently be highly beneficial to consumers.