Guidelines according to the New Approach concept

For the purpose of creating a single European internal market, the European Union has drawn up a "New Approach" for the technical harmonization of legislation. This New Approach is based on legal regulations that set basic requirements as protection targets. It is further assumed that voluntary European standards will be used to specify these protection targets. The political specifications according to the New Approach thus differentiate between measures that must be fulfilled by law and voluntary measures.

Currently, in this area, the regulated area, such directives exist for a number of product groups, such as toys, gas appliances, data transmission terminals, machinery, medical devices, non-automatic weighing instruments, pressure equipment and construction products.

Meaning and objectives of the harmonization concept

The EU harmonization concept is a new regulatory approach and strategy for the European single market. This new concept aims to harmonize technical legislation and standards, thus creating an essential prerequisite for the free movement of goods in Europe. The harmonization concept is essentially based on the following four fundamental principles:

• EU directives, as harmonized legislation, only state essential (safety) requirements for a product.
• The essential requirements of the EU directives are further specified by harmonized standards.
• The application of harmonized standards (or other standards) remains voluntary.
• Products that comply with harmonized standards are presumed to meet the requirements of the directives.

Conclusion

The interaction of the directives for the products and for social security should result in a high level of safety in the use of technical products. Manufacturers, employers and also the user are jointly responsible for safety in the handling of technical products. Important features of harmonized standards:

Harmonized standards in the area of the directives of the new harmonization concept

• are European standards which are adopted unchanged by the member states in their national body of standards,
• must meet the requirements of the directives to which they refer - this is confirmed by publication in the EU Official Journal,
• do not necessarily cover all the requirements of the directives. In this case, the manufacturer may have to refer to other technical specifications.
• are to be applied voluntarily.