Directive 2007/23/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 May 2007 on the placing on the market of pyrotechnic articles (3) has been substantially amended (4). Since further amendments are to be made, that Directive should be recast in the interests of clarity.
(2)
Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products (5) lays down rules on the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies, provides a framework for the market surveillance of products and for controls on products from third countries, and lays down the general principles of the CE marking.
(3)
Decision No 768/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on a common framework for the marketing of products (6) lays down common principles and reference provisions intended to apply across sectoral legislation in order to provide a coherent basis for revision or recasts of that legislation. Directive 2007/23/EC should be adapted to that Decision.
(4)
The laws, regulations and administrative provisions in force in the Member States with regard to the making available on the market of pyrotechnic articles are divergent, in particular as regards aspects such as safety and performance characteristics.
(5)
The laws, regulations and administrative provisions of Member States, being liable to cause barriers to trade within the Union, need to be harmonised in order to guarantee the free movement of pyrotechnic articles within the internal market while ensuring a high level of protection of human health and safety and the protection of consumers and professional end-users. Such high level of protection should include the relevant age limits associated with users of pyrotechnic articles being adhered to.
(6)
Council Directive 93/15/EEC of 5 April 1993 on the harmonisation of the provisions relating to the placing on the market and supervision of explosives for civil uses (7) excludes pyrotechnic articles from its scope.
(7)
Safety during storage is governed by Council Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December 1996 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (8) which sets out safety requirements for establishments where explosives, including pyrotechnic substances, are present.
(8)
As regards safety in transportation, the rules concerning the transport of pyrotechnic articles are covered by international conventions and agreements, including the United Nations recommendations on the transport of dangerous goods. Those aspects should therefore not fall within the scope of this Directive.
(9)
This Directive should apply to all forms of supply, including distance selling.
(10)
This Directive should not apply to pyrotechnic articles to which Council Directive 96/98/EC of 20 December 1996 on marine equipment (9) and the relevant international conventions referred to therein apply. It should also not apply to percussion caps intended for toys falling within the scope of Directive 2009/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2009 on the safety of toys (10).
(11)
Fireworks which are built by a manufacturer for his own use and approved for use exclusively on its territory by the Member State in which the manufacturer is established, and which remain on the territory of that Member State, should not be considered as having been made available on the market and should therefore not need to comply with this Directive.
(12)
It should not be possible, where the requirements laid down in this Directive are satisfied, for Member States to prohibit, restrict or hinder the free movement of pyrotechnic articles. This Directive should apply without prejudice to national legislation on the licensing of manufacturers, distributors and importers by the Member States.
(13)
Pyrotechnic articles should include fireworks, theatrical pyrotechnic articles and other pyrotechnic articles for technical purposes, such as gas generators used in airbags or in seatbelt pretensioners.
(14)
In order to ensure appropriately high levels of protection, pyrotechnic articles should be categorised according to their level of hazard as regards their type of use, purpose or noise level.
(15)
Given the dangers inherent in the use of pyrotechnic articles, it is appropriate to lay down age limits for their being made available to persons, and to ensure that their labelling displays sufficient and appropriate information on safe use, in order to protect human health and safety and the environment. Certain pyrotechnic articles should be made available only to persons with the necessary knowledge, skills and experience. With regard to pyrotechnic articles for vehicles, labelling requirements should take into account current practice and the fact that those articles are supplied exclusively to professional users.
(16)
The use of pyrotechnic articles and, in particular, the use of fireworks, is subject to markedly divergent cultural customs and traditions in the respective Member States. It is therefore necessary to allow Member States to take national measures to limit the use or sale of certain categories of pyrotechnic articles to the general public for reasons, inter alia, of public security or health and safety.
(17)
Economic operators should be responsible for the compliance of pyrotechnic articles with the requirements of this Directive, in relation to their respective roles in the supply chain, so as to ensure a high level of protection of public interests, such as health and safety and the protection of consumers, and to guarantee fair competition on the Union market.
(18)
All economic operators intervening in the supply and distribution chain should take appropriate measures to ensure that they only make available on the market pyrotechnic articles which are in conformity with this Directive. It is necessary to provide for a clear and proportionate distribution of obligations which correspond to the role of each economic operator in the supply and distribution chain.
(19)
In order to facilitate communication between economic operators, market surveillance authorities and consumers, Member States should encourage economic operators to include a website address in addition to the postal address.
(20)
The manufacturer, having detailed knowledge of the design and production process, is best placed to carry out the conformity assessment procedure. Conformity assessment should therefore remain solely the obligation of the manufacturer.
(21)
It is necessary to ensure that pyrotechnic articles from third countries entering the Union market comply with the requirements of this Directive, and in particular that appropriate conformity assessment procedures have been carried out by manufacturers with regard to those pyrotechnic articles. Provision should therefore be made for importers to make sure that the pyrotechnic articles they place on the market comply with the requirements of this Directive and that they do not place on the market pyrotechnic articles which do not comply with such requirements or present a risk. Provision should also be made for importers to make sure that conformity assessment procedures have been carried out and that marking of pyrotechnic articles and documentation drawn up by manufacturers are available for inspection by the competent national authorities.
(22)
The distributor makes a pyrotechnic article available on the market after it has been placed on the market by the manufacturer or the importer and should act with due care to ensure that his handling of the pyrotechnic article does not adversely affect the compliance of the pyrotechnic article.
(23)
Any economic operator who either places a pyrotechnic article on the market under his own name or trademark or modifies a pyrotechnic article in such a way that compliance with the requirements of this Directive may be affected should be considered to be the manufacturer and should assume the obligations of the manufacturer.
(24)
Distributors and importers, being close to the market place, should be involved in market surveillance tasks carried out by the competent national authorities, and should be prepared to participate actively, providing those authorities with all necessary information relating to the pyrotechnic article concerned.
(25)
When keeping the information required under this Directive for the identification of other economic operators, economic operators should not be required to update such information in respect of other economic operators who have either supplied them with a pyrotechnic article or to whom they have supplied a pyrotechnic article.
(26)
It is appropriate to establish essential safety requirements for pyrotechnic articles in order to protect consumers and to prevent accidents.
(27)
Some pyrotechnic articles, particularly pyrotechnic articles for vehicles such as air bag gas generators, contain small amounts of commercial blasting agents and military explosives. Following the adoption of Directive 2007/23/EC it has become obvious that it will not be possible to replace these substances as additives in strictly combustive compositions, where they are used to enhance the energetic balance. The essential safety requirement, which restricts the use of commercial blasting agents and military explosives, should therefore be modified.
(28)
In order to facilitate conformity assessment with the essential safety requirements provided for in this Directive, it is necessary to provide for a presumption of conformity for pyrotechnic articles which are in conformity with harmonised standards that are adopted in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on European Standardisation, amending Council Directives 89/686/EEC and 93/15/EEC and Directives 94/9/EC, 94/25/EC, 95/16/EC, 97/23/EC, 98/34/EC, 2004/22/EC, 2007/23/EC, 2009/23/EC and 2009/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (11) for the purpose of expressing detailed technical specifications of those requirements.
(29)
Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 provides for a procedure for objections to harmonised standards where those standards do not entirely satisfy the requirements of this Directive.
(30)
In order to enable economic operators to demonstrate and the competent authorities to ensure that pyrotechnic articles made available on the market comply with the essential safety requirements, it is necessary to provide for conformity assessment procedures. Decision No 768/2008/EC establishes modules for conformity assessment procedures, which include procedures from the least to the most stringent, in proportion to the level of risk involved and the level of safety required. In order to ensure intersectoral coherence and to avoid ad-hoc variants, conformity assessment procedures should be chosen from among those modules.
(31)
Manufacturers should draw up an EU declaration of conformity to provide information required under this Directive on the conformity of a pyrotechnic article with the requirements of this Directive and of other relevant Union harmonisation legislation.
(32)
To ensure effective access to information for market surveillance purposes, the information required to identify all applicable Union acts should be available in a single EU declaration of conformity. In order to reduce the administrative burden on economic operators, that single EU declaration of conformity may be a dossier made up of relevant individual declarations of conformity.
(33)
The CE marking, indicating the conformity of a pyrotechnic article, is the visible consequence of a whole process comprising conformity assessment in a broad sense. General principles governing the CE marking are set out in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008. Rules governing the affixing of the CE marking should be laid down in this Directive.
(34)
The conformity assessment procedures set out in this Directive require the intervention of conformity assessment bodies, which are notified by the Member States to the Commission.
(35)
Experience has shown that the criteria set out in Directive 2007/23/EC that conformity assessment bodies have to fulfil to be notified to the Commission are not sufficient to ensure a uniformly high level of performance of notified bodies throughout the Union. It is, however, essential that all notified bodies perform their functions to the same level and under conditions of fair competition. That requires the setting of obligatory requirements for conformity assessment bodies wishing to be notified in order to provide conformity assessment services.
(36)
In order to ensure a consistent level of conformity assessment quality it is also necessary to set requirements for notifying authorities and other bodies involved in the assessment, notification and monitoring of notified bodies.
(37)
The system set out in this Directive should be complemented by the accreditation system provided for in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008. Since accreditation is an essential means of verifying the competence of conformity assessment bodies, it should also be used for the purposes of notification.
(38)
Transparent accreditation as provided for in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, ensuring the necessary level of confidence in certificates of conformity, should be considered by the national public authorities throughout the Union as the preferred means of demonstrating the technical competence of conformity assessment bodies. However, national authorities may consider that they possess the appropriate means of carrying out that evaluation themselves. In such cases, in order to ensure the appropriate level of credibility of evaluations carried out by other national authorities, they should provide the Commission and the other Member States with the necessary documentary evidence demonstrating the compliance of the conformity assessment bodies evaluated with the relevant regulatory requirements.
(39)
Conformity assessment bodies frequently subcontract parts of their activities linked to the assessment of conformity or have recourse to a subsidiary. In order to safeguard the level of protection required for the pyrotechnic articles to be placed on the Union market, it is essential that conformity assessment subcontractors and subsidiaries fulfil the same requirements as notified bodies in relation to the performance of conformity assessment tasks. Therefore, it is important that the assessment of the competence and the performance of bodies to be notified and the monitoring of bodies already notified cover also activities carried out by subcontractors and subsidiaries.
(40)
It is necessary to increase the efficiency and transparency of the notification procedure and, in particular, to adapt it to new technologies so as to enable online notification.
(41)
Since notified bodies may offer their services throughout the Union, it is appropriate to give the other Member States and the Commission the opportunity to raise objections concerning a notified body. It is therefore important to provide for a period during which any doubts or concerns as to the competence of conformity assessment bodies can be clarified before they start operating as notified bodies.
(42)
In the interests of competitiveness, it is crucial that notified bodies apply the conformity assessment procedures without creating unnecessary burdens for economic operators. For the same reason, and to ensure equal treatment of economic operators, consistency in the technical application of the conformity assessment procedures needs to be ensured. That can best be achieved through appropriate coordination and cooperation between notified bodies.
(43)
Member States should take all appropriate measures to ensure that pyrotechnic articles may be placed on the market only if, when properly stored and used for their intended purpose, or under conditions of use which can be reasonably foreseen, they do not endanger the health and safety of persons. Pyrotechnic articles should be considered as non-compliant with the essential safety requirements laid down in this Directive only under conditions of use which can be reasonably foreseen, that is when such use could result from lawful and readily predictable human behaviour.
(44)
In order to ensure legal certainty, it is necessary to clarify that the rules on Union market surveillance and control of products entering the Union market provided for in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 apply to pyrotechnic articles. This Directive should not prevent Member States from choosing the competent authorities to carry out those tasks.
(45)
Groups of pyrotechnic articles that are similar in design, function or behaviour should be assessed by the notified bodies as product families.
(46)
A safeguard procedure is necessary to allow the possibility for contesting the conformity of a pyrotechnic article. In order to increase transparency and to reduce processing time, it is necessary to improve the existing safeguard procedure, with a view to making it more efficient and drawing on the expertise available in Member States.
(47)
The existing system should be supplemented by a procedure under which interested parties are informed of measures intended to be taken with regard to pyrotechnic articles presenting a risk to the health or safety of persons or to other aspects of public interest protection. It should also allow market surveillance authorities, in cooperation with the relevant economic operators, to act at an earlier stage in respect of such pyrotechnic articles.
(48)
Where the Member States and the Commission agree as to the justification of a measure taken by a Member State, no further involvement of the Commission should be required, except where non-compliance can be attributed to shortcomings of a harmonised standard.
(49)
It is in the interests of the manufacturer and the importer to supply safe pyrotechnic articles in order to avoid liability costs for defective products causing damage to individuals and private property. In this regard, Council Directive 85/374/EEC of 25 July 1985 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning liability for defective products (12) complements this Directive, since Directive 85/374/EEC imposes a strict liability regime on manufacturers and importers and ensures an adequate level of protection for consumers. Furthermore, Directive 85/374/EEC provides that notified bodies should be adequately insured in respect of their professional activities, unless their liability is assumed by the State in accordance with national law, or the Member State itself is directly responsible for the tests.
(50)
In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (13).
(51)
The advisory procedure should be used for the adoption of implementing acts requesting the notifying Member State to take the necessary corrective measures in respect of notified bodies that do not meet or no longer meet the requirements for their notification.
(52)
The examination procedure should be used for the adoption of implementing acts determining a uniform numbering system for identification of pyrotechnic articles and the practical arrangements for a register with registration numbers of pyrotechnic articles as well as for the regular collection and updating of data on accidents related to pyrotechnic articles.
(53)
The examination procedure should also be used for the adoption of implementing acts with respect to compliant pyrotechnic articles which present a risk to the health or safety of persons or to other aspects of public interest protection.
(54)
The Commission should adopt immediately applicable implementing acts where, in duly justified cases relating to compliant pyrotechnic articles which present a risk to the health or safety of persons, imperative grounds of urgency so require.
(55)
In line with established practice, the committee set up by this Directive can play a useful role in examining matters concerning the application of this Directive raised either by its chair or by a representative of a Member State in accordance with its rules of procedure.
(56)
The Commission should, by means of implementing acts and, given their special nature, acting without the application of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011, determine whether measures taken by Member States in respect of non-compliant pyrotechnic articles are justified or not.
(57)
Member States should lay down rules on penalties applicable to infringements of the provisions of national law adopted pursuant to this Directive and ensure that those rules are enforced. The penalties provided for should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
(58)
Manufacturers and importers need to be given time to exercise any rights under national rules in force before the date of application of national measures transposing this Directive in order, for example, to sell their stocks of manufactured products. It is therefore necessary to provide for reasonable transitional arrangements that allow the making available on the market without the need to comply with further product requirements of pyrotechnic articles that have already been placed on the market in accordance with Directive 2007/23/EC before the date of application of national measures transposing this Directive. Distributors should therefore be able to supply pyrotechnic articles that have been placed on the market, namely stock that is already in the distribution chain, before the date of application of national measures transposing this Directive.
(59)
Pyrotechnic articles for vehicles are designed for vehicle life cycles and therefore require special transitional arrangements. It is necessary for such a pyrotechnic article to comply with the requirements of the law applicable at the time it is first made available on the market and for the period of the lifetime of the vehicle in which it is installed.
(60)
In order to ensure the uninterrupted use of certain pyrotechnic articles, in particular in the automotive industry, it is necessary to apply point 4 of Annex I from 4 July 2013.
(61)
Since the objective of this Directive, namely to ensure that pyrotechnic articles on the market fulfil the requirements providing a high level of protection of health and safety and other public interests while guaranteeing the functioning of the internal market, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(62)
The obligation to transpose this Directive into national law should be confined to those provisions which represent a substantive amendment as compared to the earlier Directive. The obligation to transpose the provisions which are unchanged arose under Directive 2007/23/EC.
(63)
This Directive should be without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States relating to the time-limits for transposition into national law and the dates of application of the Directive set out in Annex IV, Part B,
