New rules to let products move freely in the EU

MEPs today adopted new rules to ensure the free movement of products in the EU. They voted to remove unjustified trade barriers within the single market requiring member states to clearly justify any restrictions to market access.

EPP Group Member Ivan Štefanec, the European Parliament’s Spokesman on the mutual recognition of goods, has hailed it an important step towards completing the Single Market for goods. “We want to end the situation where a product, for example a piece of furniture, from one EU Member State cannot be sold on another Member State’s market despite being up to EU standards.”

The new rules will bring EU consumers a wider choice by allowing those products which do not fall under common EU product laws, such as many consumer products (furniture, childcare products, textile etc.) to be automatically marketed in another Member State without going through a separate authorisation procedure.

A priority for Štefanec, the new rules will make use of the existing problem-solving mechanism SOLVIT and introduce a new problem-solving procedure on those cases where the existing mechanisms were not enough to find the solution. In cases of disputes, this will help enterprises and national authorities find a faster solution.

The new rules boost cross-border cooperation between the representatives from the competent authorities and the Product Contact Points of the Member States. Companies, and particularly SMEs, will gain from the new rules by securing enhanced legal certainty.

“We want less burden for our businesses. The procedures for businesses and national authorities will be now simpler and everybody will win with the free movement of goods in the EU Single Market", he concluded.

In December 2017, the European Commission published a Communication on ‘The Goods Package’ together with two new legislative proposals: 1) Proposal for a Regulation on the Mutual Recognition of Goods, and 2) Proposal for a Regulation on Compliance and Enforcement.