Contents1


Introduction

Directive 98/34/EC provides for a transparency system which obliges National Standards Organisations (NSOs) to inform the Commission, European Standards Organisations (ESOs) and other NSOs of new subjects for which they have decided, by including them in their standards programme, to prepare or amend a national standard. The Directive designates three ESOs (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI) and NSOs – all listed in its Annexes – as actors in standardisation development. According to the Directive, the 98/34 Committee may propose that the Commission requests ESOs to draw up a European standard within a given time limit.

url: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/consleg/1998/L/01998L0034-20070101-en.pdf

Objective

Laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations and of rules on Information Society services.

The scope of the 98/34 Procedure includes products (with detailed delineation, case law and Commission Practice described in [Bibliography item 1 not found.]) and Information Society Services (detailed description in [Bibliography item 2 not found.].

The scope excludes the "Geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural
products and foodstuffs", as explained in Section 2.2.5 of [Bibliography item 1 not found.].

Parties

  1. EU Member States
  2. The Commission
  3. three ESOs (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI)
  4. NSOs
  5. Standing Committee (Art. 6)

The 98/34/EC Directive (formerly 83/189/EEC) sets up a procedure which imposes an obligation upon the Member States to notify to the Commission and to each other all the draft technical regulations concerning products and Information Society Services before they are adopted in national law. Such procedure aims at providing transparency and control with regard to those regulations. Since they could create unjustified barriers between Member States, their notification in the draft form and subsequent evaluation of their content in the course of the procedure help to diminish this risk.
(Source: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tris/about/index_en.htm)

The directive establishes a system of notification of technical regulations at a draft stage applying standstill periods during which the Commission and all Member States can react in a specific form.

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