Nyborg, K.

Archive of European Integration

uo #q,(.i//Csr z)(cst z)European CommunitiesEUROPEAN PARLIAMENTW.orking Documents1978 - 19792May 1978l.,?...*Englirh EditionDOCUMENT 6t 178Reportdrawn up on behalf of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairson the proposals from the commission of the European communities to theCouncil for .//I. a directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerningthe general requirement of construction and certain types of protection forelectrical equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres(Doc. 482177)II. a directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating tocommon provisions for machine-tools and similar machines for the working ofmetals, wood, paper and other materialsIII. a dirctive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating tohand{reld, po werdriven, portable grin ding machines(Doc.505/77)Repporteu: Mr K. I{YBORGPE 53.0441fin.By letter of 5 January 1978 the president of the council of theEuropean communities requested the European parliament, pursuant toArticle loo of the EEC Treaty, to deriver an opinion on the proposalfrom the commission of the European communities to the council for adirective on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerningthe general requirements of construction and certain t11ges of protectionfor electrical equipment for use in potentially e><plosive atmospheres (Doc.482/77).By letter of 19 January 1978 the President of the Council of theEuropean communities requested the European parriament, pursuant toArticle 1OO of the EEC Treaty, to deliver an opinion on the proposals fromthe Commission of the European Comrnunities to the Council for two directiveson the approximation of the laws of the l"lember states relating to- common provisions for machine-tooIs and simirar machines for theworking of metals, wood, paper and other materials,- hand-held, power-driven portable grinding machines (Doc. 505/77).The President of the European Parliament referred the first proposalto the Committee on Economic and Itlonetary Affairs as the comrnitteeresponsible and to the Committee on the Environment, Public Health andConsumer Protection for its opinion.The President of the European Parliament referred the second tnoproposals to the committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs as thecommittee responsible.On 2 February 1978 the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairsappointed Mr Nyborg rapporteur.rt considered these proposars at its meeting of 19 April 1978 andadoptod the motion for a rosolutiorr by 9 votes to 1 with 4 abstentions.Pr€sent: Mr Glinne, chairman; I{r Notenboom and I"1r Leonardi,vice-chairmeni I"1r Nyborg, rapporteur; Lord Ardwick, Mr BourdeIlEs(deputizing for Mr Damseaux), Mrs Dahlerup, Mr H. w, Millrer, Mr Normanton,Mr Prescott, Mr Spinelli, Mr Starke, Mr Stetter and Mr Vergeer(deputizing for Mr Van der Gun).The opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Pub1ic Health andConsumer Protection corcerning Doc. 482/77 Ls attached.- 3- PE s3.o44/fin.CONTENTSA. II,IOTION FOR AB; EXPIANATORYRESOLUTIONSTATEIT{ENTOpinion of the Committee onPublic Hea1th and Consumerthe Environment,ProtectionPaqe56- 4- PE 53.O44/fin.Afhe Comnittee on Economic and I'Ionetary Affairs hereby submits to theEuropean Parliament the folloring motion for a resolution, together withexplanatory statement :II,IOTION FOR A RESOLUTIONembodying the opinion of the European Parliament on the propoeals from theCommission of the European Conununities to the Council forI. a directive on the approximation of the laws of the Meilber Statesconcerning the general requirements of construction and certain types ofprotection for electrical equipment for use in potentially explosiveatmospheresrr, a directive on the approximation of the laws of the [eilber statesrelating to corunon provisions for machine-tools and similar machineefor the working of metals, wood, paper and other materialsfrI.a directive on the approximation of the lawE of the Member StateBrelating to hand-held, porer-driven portable gri,nding machinesllhe European Parliament,- having regard to the proposals from the Comnrission of the EuropeanCommunities to the Council (coM(77) 660 final and cOl,i(77) 656 final),- having been consulted by the Council pursuant to Article 100 of theEEC Treaty (Docs. 482n7 and 5Q5fi71 ,- having regard to its resolution of 12 December L974 on the eliminationof technical barriers to trade,- having regard to the rePort of the Committee on Economic and MonetaryAffairs and the opinion of the committee on the Environment, PublicHealth and Consumer Protection (Doc.6L/78),1. APProves these proposalswhile drawing attention to the Commission'sresponsibility to lay down standards relative to the safety risks arisingfrom the use of power-driven grinding machines;2. Considers that, pending the Commission proposal for a change ln theprocedure for the elimination of technLeal barriers to trade,' suchproposals should in future be dealt with by Parliament by as simple aprocedure as possible where there are no important politicalimplications.-5- PE 53. o44/fin.I.BEXPLA}IATORY STATEMETII1. Follo^ring Parliament's proposal that the procedure for the'lelimination of technical barriers to trade should be changed-, thecorunission is nosr working on a ProPosal to that effect. Briefly, theprocedure proposed by Parliarnent is that the Corunission should systematicallypropose outline directives Pursuant to Article 100 of the EEC Treaty forindividual sectors defined in action progranmes and lay dorn on its orrrresponsibility provisions for their implementation, Pursuant to Article 155of the EEc Treaty. Y.tli such time as thd-'Conunission submits its proposal for tfre amen-ament of the procedure, it iEdesirabre that Parriament should spend as little time as possible onsuch proposals for the elimination of technical barriers to trade unlessthe technical details present some issue of political concern. In thatcase, discussion in parliament should follon as simple a procedure agpossible. The feeling that reports on technical barriers to trade shouldin the meantime be dealt with by the simplest possible procedure is nota new one- During the plenary sitting of 15 lvlarch Lg75, Mr ITTTTERDORFERexpressed the opinion that reports on technical barriers to trade shouldbe adopted without debate in plenary sitting until the procedure had beenaltered. rt therefore seems appropriate to concidcr this report accordingto the procedure without debate.States the aIrcertain tvFes of protection for electrical equipment for use in potentiallvexplosive atmospheres2. on 18 December 1975 the councir adopted Directive No. 76/LL7/EE}with the PurPose of eliminating technical barriers to trade in the sectorof electricar equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.Hc'hlever, a number of procedural provisions of this directive make referenceto the harmonized standards which would have to be laid dovrn in laterimplementing directives and without which this directive could not enterinto force. The present proposal for a directive submits 7 harmonizedII.1 OJ No. C 5, 8.I.1975-6- PE 53. O44 /tin.standards for the Council's approval in order to make implementation ofdirectives 76/LL7/EEC possible. llhe Comnission attributes the delay insubmitting this proposal, which it had promised to submit before 18 JuneLg77, to the need to await the results of the work on harmonizationcarried out by the CENELEC (European Electrotechnical StandardizationCommittee).3. parliament has already taken up a position on harmonization in thesector of electrical equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheresin connection with the proposal for the framework directive nor adopted(Directive 76/LL7 /EF.cl. Its report (Doc. 73/7L) gave broad approval tothe harmonization proposed. As a result, the Comrnittee on Economic andMonetary Affairs does not wish to go into greater detail into a proposalwhich merely lays dcnrn a number of irtrplementing provisions for the basicdirective. It would however like to underline once again the requestcontained in the opinion of the Committee on the Environment, PublicHealth and Consumer Protection that the Commission should submit a proposalas quickly as possibte for a directive on equipment designed for workunderground in mines susceptible to fire damp. In fact, at the time ofits proposal for a new procedurel for the elimination of technicalbarriers to trade, Parliament took up a clear position against the presentIengthy decision-making procedure for this type of implementation directive.Under its proposed new procedure, the commission would have the porers tolay dorn these implementation directives itself.III. proposals from the Commission of the European Commrnities to the Council for- a directive on the approximation of the la,ws of the Meriber Statesrelatincr to common provisions for machine-tools and similar machinesfor the workinq of metals, wood, paper and other materials- a directive on the approximation of the laws of the Memlcer Statesrelatinq to hand-held, poarer-driven, portable qrindinq machines(Doc. 5o5h7l4. Legislation in this sector is justified in order to provide protectionfor the users of these machines. I{owever, as in other sectors, nationallegislation hae Lhe e.tfect of djsLorting competition and hinderlng Lradeand so there is urgent need for harmonization of both technical provieionsand the administrative procedures. This harmonization was, for thisreason, included in the programme on the elimination of technicalbarriers Lo trade. There has been some delay; under the original time-table, the Commission was to have introduced its proposal beforeI oJ No. c 5, 8.1.1975-7- PE 53.O44/fLn.I January 1975 and the council was to have adopted it before1 JanuarY L977.5. Ehe firet propoaal ie for an otrtline dlrectivc contalnlng a nurserof gcneral provlalona to ba applied to machlne-toolg and aimiler rnechlncrfor the r.rorking of metale, wood' PaPer and othcr nat'rltls'Ttre outline dircctive containe general provlaiona rcferrLng lnparticular to the proceduree of EEC type-approval, EEC typc-examl'nation'EEC verification, EEC inspection and EEC indeFndent certificatlon' Ittcspecific directives then lay dorn Provisions for cach category ofmachinee concerning the technical implementation of the msana of inslnc-tion of the nachines and their componenta and poaaibly the conditioneunder which the corumrnity's technical proviaions will replace ercistingnational provisions. Ttrie ie done only in the caae of total harmonization'holever.G. lrhe conunieaion has chosen the optional sy8tcm of harmonization forthe first apccific directive concerning Portablc arinding rnechines' Itpolnta out that thia doec not preclude the poaaibillty that eoDg spccificdirectivae mlght bc bleed on the prlnciple of total harmonizatlon' lfhis'horrrov€r, will only be done if Partic'ularly important safety problanra arige'since thic ia not the caae here, the optional harnonization ayatem choaen1l acceptable.The cmnitEee on Economic and Monetary Affairs doce not wish to 90into grcater detail on thir point herc. It would prcfcr to dcal Ln tha nearfuturo wlth thc acncral problrue aerociatod rlth thc ehoicc of haruonization!yrt.n. In lte previoua report on thc clinination of tcchnieal barricrlto tradc eonccrnlng hot*atcr rn6t€tr!, it poLntad to thc dceirablllty of agcncral approach to thc problcrn on there lineg'-8- PE 53. O44/fLn-OPINION OF TTiE COMI"IITTEE ON THE EWIRONMENT, PUBLICHEALTH AND CONSUIT{ER PROTECTIONI€tter from the committee chairman to !,tr GLINNE, chairmanof the Committee on Eeonomic and Monetary AffairsLuxembourg, 5 APril 1978Su$ecfu koposal from the Commission of the European Conununities to theCouncil for a directive on the approximation of the laws of the MemberStates concerning the general requirements of construction and certaintypes of protection for electrical equipment for use in potentiallyexplosive atmospheres (Doc. 482/77\ .oooAt its meeting of22 February 19781 the Committee on the Environment,Pr:IcIic Health and Consumer Protection considered the protrrosal for a directiveon the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning thegeneral requirements of construction and certain types of protection forelectrical. equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres(Doc. 482/771, and delivered the following unanimous opinion.It greatly welcomes this proposal which, although it was onlysubmitted after some de1ay, completes the Council's outline direetive of18 December 1975 (75/LL7/EEg) and as such is intended as the first in aseries of harmonized construction safety standards for electrical equipmentused in certain circumstances to prevent the risk of explosions.The Committee accordingly expects the Council to approve this proposalat an early date. It nevertheless encourages the Commission to putsue itsactivities in this area in collaboration with CENELEC and to propose furtherstandards, including if possible standards for equipment to be installedin the underground workings of mincs containing firedamp.l'l,rotcnt: Mr A ir. I to, <'lt.t i rtrt,ittr, Mr ,l.rlltr, v,lr.<' -r'lr,r i rnr.ul, Mr Arrrl<,rncn, Mr l)l t1ler,Mr Edrrrards, Mr Lamberts, Mr: Ney, Mr Noi., Mr Ryan, l,1r Sclryns,Mrs Squarcialupi and Mr Vcrnaschi- 9- PE 53.O44/Ann/fin.LuxembourgP.O.B. l50l

Report drawn up on behalf of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on the proposals from the Commission of the European Communities to the Council for
I. a directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning the general requirement of construction and certain types of protection for
electrical equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres (Doc. 482/77)
II. a directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to
common provisions for machine-tools and similar machines for the working of metals, wood, paper and other materials
III. a directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to hand-held, powerdriven, portable grinding machines (Doc. 505/77). EP Working Documents, document 61/78, 2 May 1978

http://aei.pitt.edu/95607/1/1978%2D79.78.61.pdf

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