The European so-called New Approach for safety assurance of products within the EU/EEA member countries was developed in 1985.The part of this called the Global
Approach includes the modules with risk-classes for different types of products and also introduction of CE-marking to claim conformity. For most product types it entails self-declaration of conformity by the manufacturer or his authorized representative.
Mandatory 3rd party certification is limited to higher risk products.
The concept has since been adopted fully or partly in many other countries around the world, e.g. in the Persian Gulf region.
In Europe, the concept was in 2008 renamed New Legislative Framework (NLF) and then updated to improve market surveillance and boost the quality of conformity assessments as well as clarifying the use of CE marking and providing a toolbox of measures for the member states to use in product legislation.
The rapid development of technology and the increasing environmental focus, as well as not least new trade channels, have prompted the European Commission to reassess the current framework now for necessary further updates. The NLF covers many different product categories, including electrical/electronic and is complementary to the General Product Safety Regulation which was made effective in December last year. Since 2008, also the Product Liability Directive (PLD), the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Market Surveillance Regulation (MSR) have been adopted.
NLF’s wording of the requirements for CE marking and the framework for EU conformity assessment procedures. concern more public authorities than companies, but it does have an indirect effect on the procedures for marketing a product (e.g. how many steps are to be followed for a product to bear the right information).
The European Commission has informed stakeholders of its intention to explore how to align the NLF and other product legislation with the digital era and growing digitalization and also with the objectives of the circular economy.
The need for integrating the principles of circularity, durability, and transparency in the revised NLF is highlighted and also need for implementation of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) as a tool for material traceability and increased environmental transparency obligations on economic operators. Need is seen too for clarification of the legal responsibility of online platforms and possibly additional obligations for economic operators and platforms related to their compliance history.
Regarding digitalization to simplify product compliance, the Commission has chosen to focus the procedures and documentation to demonstrate that products comply with the applicable requirements, primarily declaration of conformity and instruction manuals.
The Commission will also assess the possible alternatives to harmonized standards to demonstrate product conformity.
Further information is available e.g. here and here
(This article is based information found on internet; edited by T.Sollie)