25 jaar van voorkomen van handelsbarrières in de EU - het succesverhaal van Richtlijn 98/34/EC (en)

Although we enjoy free movement of goods in the EU, national regulations can make it difficult for enterprises to sell their products in other Member States. There is however a successful tool which enables us to anticipate and fight against unnecessary barriers to trade. The tool is the notification procedure under Directive 98/34/EC and its predecessor, Directive 83/189/EC. For 25 years they have obliged Member States to provide information on any draft technical regulations on products and Information Society Services before they are adopted at the national level This system gives the Commission and other Member States - during standstill periods - the opportunity to examine draft regulations. Also enterprises can actively contribute to the fight against unnecessary administrative burdens by making use of this notification procedure. Since 1984 more than 12Â 000 draft regulations have been cleared.

European Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen i, responsible for enterprise and industry policy, said: “This procedure has prevented thousands of new obstacles and new administrative burdens since now 25 years. It is a key element of our Better Regulation initiative. It allows for early identification of potential obstacles, brings Member States together and prevents also "gold-plating". In fact, it looks very technical – but this directive has created a truly European success story.”

Member States make intensive use of the 98/34 procedure.. Foodstuffs and agricultural sectors as well as telecommunications, transport, construction and mechanical engineering are the major areas in which the 98/34 procedure has been applied. In 12% of cases, the Commission found that the new regulations could have hampered trade. However, in more than 95% of these cases, solutions were found before Member States adopted these texts. These solutions thus avoided the need for infringement procedures which are always cumbersome and onerous for all parties involved. Examples, of how the procedure has helped to abolish burdens for trade are:

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  Member States previously tried to protect foodstuffs, such as tomato products, with specific names and requirements in national draft regulations. Due to the notification procedure they had to add a mutual recognition clause to ensure that such products produced in other Member States were marketed under equivalent names.
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  Lights and brakes of bicycles had to conform to national standards making their trade in the EU complicated. Now bicycles are accepted in all Member States as long as they offer high safety standards.
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  National draft regulation required scaffold manufacturers to respect these in case they intended to import to sell scaffolds in this country. As this was unnecessary burdensome for them they were permitted to submit the test results of the safety procedure, which had been carried out in their home country.

All intended national safety regulations have to be entered onto the EU’s TRIS database. Stakeholders can browse legislation proposed by the Member States in which they are interested or that may impact on their business. Notified drafts are classified according to their aim and area of activity.

The TRIS database is a free service available on the Europa portal and is updated daily. Most of the notified regulations can be viewed in all EU languages.

For further information, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tris/.