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| New Approach (European Union) | |
|---|---|
| Name | New Approach |
| Established | 1985 |
| Jurisdiction | European Union |
| Key documents | Single European Act, Council Resolution on the New Approach, Directive 93/68/EEC |
| Related | CE marking, European Economic Community, European Free Trade Association |
New Approach (European Union) The New Approach is a regulatory strategy adopted by the European Economic Community in the 1980s to harmonise technical requirements for products across the European Union single market. It shifted emphasis from detailed prescriptive rules to essential requirements, conformity assessment and reliance on voluntary harmonised standards, enabling free movement of goods among European Commission member states while engaging stakeholders such as the European Committee for Standardization, European Free Trade Association, and industry federations.
The New Approach emerged against the political backdrop of the Single Market programme promoted by Jacques Delors and institutional drivers including the Single European Act and the Delors Commission. It sought to address barriers identified after the Treaty of Rome and in debates at the European Council and Council of the European Union. Objectives included removing technical barriers to trade highlighted by stakeholders such as BusinessEurope, reducing duplicate conformity checks encountered by exporters to Germany, France, Italy, and United Kingdom, and promoting competitiveness in markets dominated by multinationals like Siemens, Philips, Siemens AG, and Alcatel-Lucent.
The legal basis rests on directives and decisions adopted by the Council of the European Union and proposals from the European Commission under the internal market competence elaborated in the Treaty on European Union and successor treaties. Core principles include essential requirements articulated in directives, the presumption of conformity through harmonised standards from European Committee for Standardization (CEN), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and the CE marking as established in Council decisions and later consolidated in Regulation (EC) instruments. The approach aligns with subsidiarity discussions in the European Parliament and legal scrutiny by the European Court of Justice in cases involving free movement of goods and mutual recognition.
Conformity assessment under the New Approach operates via modules codified in directives and later frameworks, involving notified bodies designated under national schemes, notified through the Notification Procedure to the European Commission. The CE marking was introduced as a visible declaration that products satisfy applicable essential requirements from directives such as the Machinery Directive, Low Voltage Directive, and Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive. Importers, manufacturers, and authorised representatives including firms like Bosch and General Electric interact with notified bodies and national authorities in France, Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium during assessment procedures.
Implementation depends heavily on harmonised standards developed by CEN, CENELEC, and ETSI in collaboration with national standards bodies like British Standards Institution, Deutsches Institut für Normung, and Association Française de Normalisation. These standards provide technical specifications referenced in the Official Journal of the European Union and developed through stakeholder consultations with industry associations such as European Automobile Manufacturers Association and consumer organisations represented at EU level. The dynamic between harmonised standards and essential requirements has been shaped by technical workgroups, market surveillance authorities in member states, and interactions with international standards organisations like International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission.
The New Approach contributed to reducing compliance costs for firms trading across European Union borders, facilitating integration for multinational corporations including Renault, Volkswagen, and Nokia. It stimulated growth in sectors such as machinery, medical devices, and electronics by streamlining access to internal markets and fostering competitive supply chains across Central and Eastern European countries after enlargement rounds involving Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic. The framework influenced trade negotiations involving the World Trade Organization and informed regulatory cooperation with partners like United States, Japan, and China.
Critics in the European Parliament, consumer groups, and some national authorities argued that reliance on voluntary harmonised standards and private standardisation bodies could weaken scrutiny compared with prescriptive rules, raising concerns about safety exemplified in debates following incidents involving Boeing and Takata-related recalls. Divergence in designation of notified bodies, variations in market surveillance among Greece, Portugal, Sweden, and Finland, and litigation at the European Court of Justice highlighted implementation inconsistencies. Tensions with trade partners and questions in forums such as the World Trade Organization dispute settlement system also reflected challenges in reconciling mutual recognition with differing regulatory paradigms from United States federal agencies and national regulators.
The New Approach evolved into the New Legislative Framework and informed later instruments including the Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 on accreditation and market surveillance and the adoption of the New Legislative Framework package. Its legacy persists in CE marking regimes, harmonised standards mechanisms, and the role of notified bodies, continuing to influence directives like the Medical Devices Regulation and the Construction Products Regulation. The model inspired regulatory modernization in regional blocs such as the European Free Trade Association and provided a template cited in policy debates at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and among national standardisation bodies.
Category:European Union law Category:Standards