The new Commission Expert Group on Personal Protective Equipment

The first applications to the new Commission Expert Group on Personal Protective Equipment (E03678), created in the “Register of Commission expert groups and other similar entities” in support of the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2016/425 on personal protective equipment (PPE), are already arriving!

As for other sectoral legislation - as for example Lifts (Directive 2014/33/EU), Outdoor Noise (Directive 2000/14/EC), ATEX (Directive 2014/34/EU), Machinery (Directive 2006/42/EC)... - the expert group replaces the current sectorial working group and will deal with its tasks, for the sake of improved transparency. The key documents in the Register are the “Terms of reference” and the “Continuously open call for applications for the selection of members”. The call is specifically addressed to “type C” members as “Organisations in the broad sense of the word, including companies and associations of manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers, distributors, retailers, users and consumers of personal protective equipment, as well as trade unions and non-governmental organisations, if operating at European level and if performing specific activities or representing specific interests in relation to the internal market relating to personal protective equipment, including new technological developments”. Therefore, the relevant and interested organisations are invited to submit their applications, according to the provisions of the call.

The other members of the expert group (national authorities of EU Member States and EEA-EFTA/MRA/CU countries, the Horizontal Committee of Notified Bodies for PPE and the European Standardisation Organisations: CEN and CENELEC) do not need to follow the call and will receive a direct invitation, asking them to designate their representative(s).

A new CIRCABC Interest Group in support of the expert group will be created soon; the representatives of the different types of members will be gradually added according to the designations made.

The first meeting of the Commission Expert Group on Personal Protective Equipment should be convened in the first quarter of 2020. There, the draft Rules of procedure (based on a common template) will be submitted for approval.

More information: [email protected]