§1.1.1 The ‘Old Approach’

The Old Approach reflected the traditional manner in which national authorities drew up technical legislation, going into great detail - usually motivated by a lack of confidence in the rigour of economic operators on issues of public health and safety. In certain sectors (e.g. legal metrology) this even led public authorities to deliver certificates of conformity themselves. The unanimity required in this field until 1986 made the adoption of such legislation very unwieldy and the continued recourse to this technique in a number of sectors is often justified for reasons of public policy (e.g. food legislation) or by international traditions and/or agreements which cannot be changed unilaterally (e.g. automobile legislation or food again). The first attempt to break out of this situation came with the adoption of Directive 83/189/EEC (5) on 28 March 1983 setting up an information procedure between the Member States and the Commission to avoid the creation of new technical barriers to the free movement of goods, which would take a long time to correct through the harmonisation process. Under that Directive, Member States are obliged to notify draft national technical regulations to other Member States and the Commission (and national standardisation bodies (NSB) were obliged to notify draft national standards (6) to the Commission, to the European standardisation organisations (ESO) and to other national standardisation bodies). During a standstill period, these technical regulations may not be adopted, leaving the Commission and the other Member States the possibility to react. In the absence of reactions within the initial standstill period of three months, the draft technical regulations may then be adopted. Otherwise, where objections are raised, a further three month standstill is imposed. The standstill period is 12 months in the presence of a proposal for a Union harmonisation act in the area in question. However, the standstill period does not apply where a Member State is obliged to introduce technical regulations urgently to protect public health or safety, animals or plants.

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