§1.1 A historical perspective

The objectives of the first harmonisation directives focused on the elimination of barriers and on the free movement of goods in the single market. These objectives are now being complemented by a comprehensive policy geared to ensuring that only safe and otherwise compliant products find their way on to the market, in such a way that honest economic operators can benefit from a level playing field, thus promoting at the same time an effective protection of EU consumers and professional users and a competitive single EU market. Policies and legislative techniques have evolved over the last 40 years of European integration, especially in the area of the free movement of goods, thereby contributing to the success of the Single Market today. Historically, EU legislation for goods has progressed through five main phases: — the traditional approach or ‘Old Approach’ with detailed texts containing all the necessary technical and administrative requirements; — the ‘New Approach’ developed in 1985, which restricted the content of legislation to ‘essential requirements’ leaving the technical details to European harmonised standards. This in turn led to the development of European standardisation policy to support this legislation; — the development of the conformity assessment instruments made necessary by the implementation of the various Union harmonisation acts, both New Approach and Old Approach; — the ‘New Legislative Framework’ (2) adopted in July 2008, which built on the New Approach and completed the overall legislative framework with all the necessary elements for effective conformity assessment, accreditation and market surveillance including the control of products from outside the Union; — the adoption of a new Regulation on Market Surveillance (3) and a new Regulation on Mutual Recognition of goods lawfully marketed in another Member State (4) in 2019.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07