This proposal for a directive is the second stage of the recasting of Council Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the approval of motor vehicles and their trailers. Once adopted, it will repeal and replace Directive 70/156/EEC. Since 1970, Directive 70/156/EEC has been the main legal instrument available to the European Community to implement the single market in the automobile sector. In a little over a quarter of a century, the single market has become an ‘inevitable’ reality, not only for passenger cars but also for motorcycles and mopeds. To a large extent, agricultural tractors also benefit from access to the internal market and most agricultural vehicles will shortly be included in this process thanks to the adoption of a new directive. Until now, commercial vehicles 3 have benefited only partially from the internal market. This has been by means of the type-approval of systems such as braking. The Commission now believes that the time has come to take a further step forward and extend the principles hitherto developed for other categories of vehicles to include commercial vehicles as well. Over time, Directive 70/156/EEC has undergone more than 18 amendments necessary to adapt it to a sector, which is in a permanent state of flux. Consequently, it needs to be made more readable by being recast, now that the European Community is about to embrace new members, and in the light of the fact that a major global agreement 4 on the establishing of international technical regulations has been concluded in Geneva. The first stage of the recasting entails consolidating the technical annexes to Directive 70/156/EEC in the form of a Commission directive; the second stage is a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council which will recast the legislative provisions of that directive in their entirety. The technical annexes to Directive 70/156/EEC have just been consolidated into a single document, which not only provides a synopsis of all the administrative and technical provisions governing type-approval procedures, but also lays down a set of specific measures for commercial vehicles. This proposal incorporates most of the existing legislative provisions in a reworked form and puts in place the legislative instruments that are essential in order for the approval procedure to be extended to all categories of commercial vehicles; this procedure could be operational as early as 2007. It should be noted that Community type-approval has been compulsory for passenger cars from 1 January 1998, and for motorcycles and mopeds since 17 June 1999. Besides all the technical aspects mentioned above, the proposed directive would lay down the necessary provisions concerning the introduction of a new ‘split-level’ approach to the regulatory work. If this approach is introduced, it can be assumed that the adoption of very complex pieces of legislation would be facilitated. Recent experiences have indeed shown that the inclusion of detailed, advanced technical provisions alongside the essential features in a single directive risks slowing down the adoption procedures. Consequently, while it is for the European Parliament and the Council to decide on the essential requirements of a regulatory act, it is proposed that the Commission, assisted by a regulatory committee 5, be entrusted with establishing the detailed technical provisions and practical implementation measures. The directive is based on Article 95 of the Treaty establishing the European Community and on the principle of total harmonisation, the purpose of which is to replace national laws and procedures that are liable to create barriers to the free movement of goods by a single, binding set of Community rules and a single approval procedure. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting