1. Objective
2. Community Measures
COUNCIL DIRECTIVE of 3 May 1989 on the approximation of the laws of the
Member States relating to electromagnetic compatibility (89/336/EEC)
3. Contents
COUNCIL DIRECTIVE of 3 May 1989 on the approximation of the laws of the
Member States relating to electromagnetic compatibility (89/336/EEC) THE
COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community,
and in particular Article 100a thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1), In cooperation with
the European Parliament (2),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3),
Whereas it is necessary to adopt measures with the aim of progressively
establishing the internal market over a period expiring on 31 December 1992;
whereas the internal market comprises an area without internal frontiers
in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured;
Whereas Member States are responsible for providing adequate protection
for radiocommunications and the devices, apparatus or systems whose performance
may be degraded by electromagnetic disturbance produced by electrical and
electronic apparatus against the degradation caused by such disturbances;
Whereas Member States are also responsible for ensuring that electric energy
distribution networks are protected from electromagnetic disturbance with
can affect them and, consequently, equipment fed by them;
Whereas Council Directive 86/361/EEC of 24 July 1986 on the initial stage
of the recognition of type-approval for telecommunications terminal equipment
(4) covers in particular the signals emitted by such equipment when it is
operating normally and the protection of public telecommunications networks
from harm; whereas it is therefore still necessary to provide adequate protection
for these networks, including the equipment connected to them, against temporary
disturbances caused by signals of an accidental nature that may be emitted
by this equipment;
Whereas in some Member States, mandatory provisions define in particular
the permissible electromagnetic disturbance levels that this equipment is
liable to cause and its degree of immunity to such signals; whereas these
mandatory provisions do not necessarily lead to different protection levels
from one Member State to another but do, by their disparity, hinder trade
within the Community;
Whereas the national provisions ensuring such protection must be harmonized
in order to guarantee the free movement of electrical and electronic apparatus
without lowering existing and justified levels of protection in the Member
States;
Whereas Community legislation as it stands at present provides that, notwithstanding
one of the fundamental rules of the Community, namely the free movement
of goods, barriers to intra-Community trade resulting from disparities in
national laws on the marketing of products have to be accepted in so far
as those provisions may be recognized as necessary to satisfy essential
requirements; whereas the harmonization of laws in the case in point must
therefore be confined to those provisions needed to comply with the protection
requirements relating to electromagnetic compatibility; whereas these requirements
must replace the corresponding national provisions;
Whereas this Directive therefore defines only protection requirements relating
to electromagnetic compatibility; whereas, to facilitate proof of conformity
with these requirements, it is important to have harmonized standards at
European level concerning electromagnetic compatibility, so that products
complying with them may be assumed to comply with the protection requirements;
whereas these standards harmonized at European level are drawn up by private
bodies and must remain non-binding texts; whereas for that purpose the European
Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) is recognized as
the competent body in the field of this Directive for the adoption of harmonized
standards in accordance with the general guidelines for cooperation between
the Commission and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and
CENELEC signed on 13 November 1984; whereas, for the purposes of this Directive,
a harmonized standard is a technical specification (European standard or
harmonization document) adopted by CENELEC upon a remit from the Commission
in accordance with the provisions of Council Directive 83/189/EEC of 28
March 1983 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the
field of technical standards and regulations (1), as last amended by Directive
88/182/EEC (2), and pursuant to the abovementioned general guidelines;
Whereas, pending the adoption of harmonized standards for the purposes of
this Directive, the free movement of goods should be facilitated by accepting,
as a transitional measure, on a Community level, apparatus complying with
the national standards adopted, in accordance with the Community inspection
procedure ensuring that such national standards meet the protection objectives
of this Directive;
Whereas the EC declaration of conformity concerning the apparatus constitutes
a presumption of its conformity with this Directive; whereas this declaration
must take the simplest possible form
