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Latest News

• Internal market
  
  RAPEX
  Directive 2001/95 on General Product Safety establishes a Community alert system, the RAPEX, between Member States and the Commission on measures and actions adopted in relation to products presenting a serious risk for consumers. The Commission is charged to establish guidelines to ensure the effectiveness and the proper functioning of the system. The Commission’s Decision of 16 December 2009 laying down guidelines for the management of RAPEX and of the notification procedure (Article 11 Directive 2001/95) was published in the OJEU on 26 January 2010. It replaces Decision 2004/418.
  
  New Legislative Framework
  One of the Regulations of the New Legislative Framework, Regulation 765/2008 setting out requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products, applies as of 1 January 2010. It aims to complement the existing legislative tools by providing a framework regarding the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies; the market surveillance of products; the controls on products from third countries entering the Community market and the CE marking. It therefore covers products which are the object of harmonisation at EU level, even if Member States can impose additional technical conditions on the placing of a product on their market.
  
  New Machinery Directive
  The former Machinery Directive has now been repealed, since the new Machinery Directive 2006/42 applies as of 29 December 2009. The revised Machinery Directive does not introduce radical changes compared to the former one but rather aims at consolidating the achievements of the Machinery Directive as regards free circulation and safety of machinery and improving its application.
  
  Ozone Regulation
  The new Ozone Regulation (Regulation 1005/2009 of 16 September 2009 on substances that deplete the ozone layer) applies as of 1 January 2010 and repeals Regulation 2037/2000. It aims at implementing the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer as last amended and adjusted. It lays down rules on the production, import, export, placing on the market, use, recovery, recycling, reclamation and destruction of substances that deplete the ozone layer, on the reporting of information related to those substances and on the import, export, placing on the market and use of products and equipment containing or relying on those substances. The principle is that such substances are banned, with a few exceptions that allow them.
  
  
• Consumer's protection
  
  Case C-511/08, Verbraucherzentrale Nordrhein-Westfalen eV v Heinrich Heine GmbH, Opinion of Advocate General delivered on 28 January 2010
  The advocate general delivered an opinion in reference to a preliminary ruling regarding the interpretation of Article 6 of Directive 97/7 on the protection of consumers in respect to distance contracts. According to this Article, the only charge that must be supported by the consumer if he exercises his right of withdrawal is the direct costs of returning the goods. The question was to know whether such charge includes the costs of delivering the goods or if such a charge must be borne by the supplier. The advocate general proves to be very protective of the consumer since he interprets the Article as precluding that the costs of delivering the goods must not be charged to the consumers when he exercises his right of withdrawal in distance contracts.
  
  
• International trade
  
  Free Trade Agreements
  On the 22nd of December, Member States allowed the European Commission to pursue negotiations towards free trade agreements (FTAs) with individual countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The first step will be to begin negotiations with Singapore early in 2010, which is the EU’s most important trading partner within the ASEAN countries. ASEAN is the third largest trade partner of the EU outside Europe. The aim of these agreements is to lower or abolish the existing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investments in order to strengthen the EU’s commercial ties with the dynamic ASEAN region. The ultimate objective remains to reach an agreement with the ASEAN region.
  
  Complaint against the EU in the WTO
  The Council adopted on 22 December 2009 a regulation extending, by a further period of 15 months, the anti-dumping duty on imports into the EU of footwear with leather uppers originating in China and Vietnam (Regulation 16851/09). Definitive anti-dumping duties ranging from 9,7 % to 16,5 % in the case of China and 10 % in the case of Vietnam, were first imposed in October 2006 following a Commission investigation confirming the existence of dumping and injury to Community producers. The measures were supposed to expire on 7 October 2008 but a request for review was initiated. Following this decision, China decided to file a World Trade Organisation complaint against the EU on 4 February 2010. China requested consultation with the EU in order to try to resolve the matter. In the case that no agreement is reached within 60 days, China will request a ruling from the WTO.
  

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