EUU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 128: Notat samt høringssvar vedr. køreplan for kommende evaluering af den nye lovgivningsmæssige ramme for produktregler (NLF)

Europaudvalget 2020-21
EUU Alm.del Bilag 128
Offentligt

19 November 2020

2020 - 5495

otfruh

The Danish Government's response to the public consultation on a

roadmap on evaluation of certain aspects of the New Legislative

Framework

Denmark welcomes the opportunity to comment

on the Commission’s

roadmap on evaluation of certain aspects of the New Legislative Frame-

work (NLF).

The Danish Government strongly supports the NLF and its core principle

of a public-private partnership between legislators and industry. The NLF

has proven a successful tool to improve the single market for goods to the

benefit of consumers, businesses, authorities and the European economy as

a whole. The Danish Government welcomes the Commission’s initiative

of evaluating the NLF in order to future-proof and further improve upon

the framework. Overall, the Danish Government believes the Commission

should approach the evaluation of the NLF as a timely fine-tuning of an

already successful machinery. The Danish Government encourages the

Commission to make use of the NLF as the framework for any future prod-

uct regulation across DGs in order to avoid unnecessary burdens for busi-

nesses.

Harmonized standards

A key pillar of the NLF is the system for harmonized standards, in which

legislators define essential requirements for consumer- and environmental

protection, while European Standardization Organizations define the cor-

responding detailed technical requirements for products and services. Har-

monized standards are particularly important for SMEs that might not oth-

erwise have the resources or technical know-how to demonstrate conform-

ity with Union legislation. The Danish Government believes that an evalu-

ation of the NLF should also consider the functioning of the system for

harmonized standards.

The Danish Government is concerned about a number of challenges cur-

rently facing the European system for harmonized standards, as expressed

in a joint non-paper signed by 18 member states

. The Danish Government

”Time to put harmonized standards back on track”,

joint position non-paper signed by 18 member

states and sent to Kerstin Jorna and Céline Gauer on July 1

2020.

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believes that a robust and efficient system for harmonized standards is vital

to a) the green and digital transitions, b) Europe’s competitiveness on the

global market, and c) influence on future international standardization, es-

pecially regarding new digital technologies.

The Danish Government is committed to participating in finding joint so-

lutions to the current challenges and urges the Commission to take into ac-

count stakeholders’ concerns on this issue and to ensure that the evaluation

of the NLF is coordinated with existing and upcoming initiatives on har-

monized standards, such as the Commission’s upcoming standardization

strategy.

Green and digital economy

The Danish Government strongly supports the green and digital transition

of the European economy. The twin transitions pose new challenges in

terms of product requirements, as new types of products are placed on the

market. The Danish Government agrees with the Commission that the NLF

should be able to accommodate products that undergo changes during their

life cycle, such as updates, upgrades or remanufacturing. This also requires

a sufficiently agile and efficient system for harmonized standards. Further-

more, it may be necessary to clarify roles and responsibilities across the

value chain. These are all important steps to encourage consumer and B2B

trust in new products and business models that are aligned with European

policy goals.

The Danish Government urges the Commission to consider that efforts to

ensure that e.g. remanufactured products meet the relevant product require-

ments for safety and security do not impose disproportionate burdens on

sustainable business models. Rather, it is important that the NLF makes it

easy and attractive for innovative businesses, including SMEs, to place safe

and secure sustainable products on the Single market without imposing un-

necessary burdens. Also, the NLF should not create a burden for new and

innovative business models.

The green and circular transition of the economy is a key priority to the

Danish government. Accordingly, the Danish Government has set an am-

bitious target to reduce CO2 emissions by 70 pct. in 2030. In short, the

Danish Government supports efforts to promote a well-functioning single

market for circular products and business models, such as reuse and reman-

ufacturing.

Notified bodies and conformity assessment procedures

The Danish Government acknowledges with appreciation the Commis-

sion’s intentions to ensure the quality of conformity assessment

procedures

and the competencies of notified bodies. Harmonized product regulation is

contingent on mutual trust across the system. In order to safeguard the NLF,

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it is vital that authorities, businesses and consumers can rely on the con-

formity assessments that are carried out under the NLF.

CE marking

Overall, the Danish Government believes that CE marking and accredita-

tion work well, and that most problems in these areas can be attributed to

lack of efficient and aligned implementation and enforcement. In addition,

it can be confusing, even for professionals, to understand which elements

are covered by the CE marking. For businesses, particularly SMEs, it is

problematic when new legislation enters into force without any correspond-

ing state-of-the-art harmonized standards referenced in the OJEU. Rather

than looking into alternatives to CE marking, The Danish Government en-

courages the Commission to focus on implementation and enforcement as

well as information about the rules related to CE marking.

Crisis resilience

The Danish Government appreciates the Commission’s intention to ensure

that the NLF is adequate to perform in urgency situations such as the cur-

rent COVID-19 crisis. The Danish Government notes that the NLF per-

formed well during the first wave of coronavirus in Europe in the spring of

2020, where the parties in the system for harmonized standards managed

to cooperate and deliver relevant harmonized standards for personal pro-

tective equipment and medical devices within a very short timeframe. The

Danish Business Authority referred other government authorities and rele-

vant business organizations to the guidance documents published on the

Commission’s website, which assisted manufacturers in getting acquainted

with the standards and conformity assessment procedures required to

launch a production of e.g. personal protective equipment. The Danish

Government recognizes the extraordinary efforts made by both the Euro-

pean Standardization Organizations and the European Commission in this

regard. The Danish Government hopes that this experience can serve as an

inspiration for joint efforts to make the European system for harmonized

standards more agile on a whole

– preferably as part of the Commission’s

upcoming standardization strategy.