§7.6 Cooperation among Member States and with the European Commission

In order to be effective, the market surveillance effort should be uniform across the Union. This is all the more important considering that each point of the Union’s external border constitutes an access point for a great quantity of products from third countries. If market surveillance is ‘softer’ in some parts of the Union than others, weak spots are created which threaten the public interest and create unfair trade conditions. Consequently, there must be effective market surveillance along the entire length of the Union’s external borders. Cooperation and coordination of action among national authorities is indispensable to obtain effective and consistent surveillance of the Internal Market. The EU legal framework provides a number of tools to achieve this goal. Action against products found to be non-compliant has to be generally undertaken throughout the EU, with detailed procedures in the case of certain Union harmonisation legislation which includes a safeguard clause. Mutual assistance based on Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 allows authorities to enforce a request of information vis-à-vis economic operators located in another Member State, and in special cases also enforcement measures. The EU Product Compliance Network, administrative cooperation groups (ADCOs), the ICSMS database, RAPEX and the coordinated activities on safety and conformity of products constitute essential tools to exchange information and optimise work sharing among authorities. Cooperation between national authorities responsible for border controls is also key to ensure an equal protection of the EU border. These authorities are required to share risk information via the customs risk management system (CRMS) to ensure that any risk or irregularity identified at one point of the border is instantly communicated to any other point of the border, hence ensuring effective protection of the borders against non-compliant or unsafe goods through intense cooperation in line with Art 46(5) and 47(2) of the Union Customs Code.

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