New Legislative Framework - Traceability and registers in the context of harmonised product legislation

Better and simpler regulation is a real issue, if our European regulatory system, both EU and national, is to stop undermining Europe’s international competitiveness and our continued potential as a manufacturing base in the face of ever stronger global competition. This should be even more the case in the midst of our industry’s difficult climb out of the economic crisis.

However, the stability of our legal framework is put under strain: several core-business product directives are under revision, such as the CPD, the Gas Appliances Directive, the WEEE and RoHS Directives, the R&TTE Directive and 10 more Directives are in the pipeline for a recast alignment with the 'New Legislative Framework' (NLF) .

This is why both stand-alone revisions and omnibus recasts of product directives require a careful understanding of what is necessary to preserve the competitiveness of our companies, most of which are SMEs: the focus must include harmonised and reduced administrative and regulatory burdens.