• The General Product Safety Directive Committee
• Consumer Safety Network
• Risk Assessment Working Group

The General Product Safety Directive Committee

The General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) Committee consists of delegates from national ministries or authorities responsible for product safety on the national level.

The committee assists the European Commission in several tasks related to the implementation of the GPSD. In particular, when the Commission takes decisions requiring the Member States to urgently introduce temporary measures restricting the placing on the market of products or requiring the withdrawal of products posing serious risks, it is assisted by the GPSD Committee. Such decisions may be taken under a number of cumulative, procedural and substantive conditions. The measures are valid for up to one year and may be prolonged under the same procedure, again with the assistance of the committee.

The committee also delivers opinions on draft Commission Decisions related to products presenting serious and immediate risks, and on amendments to the Annex to the Directive. The Annex sets out the operating procedures for RAPEX, the rapid alert system for consumer products presenting serious risks. The committee is also regularly consulted on issues related to referencing in the Official Journal, European standards under the Directive and on other matters relevant to the application of the Directive.

Minutes of last GPSD meetings:

Summary record of meeting held on 09 February 2012 - Annex 1 - Annex 2 - Annex 3 updated 26-04-2012

Summary record of meeting held on 13 October 2011 - Annex 1 - Annex 2 - Annex 3 - Annex 4 (agenda) - Annex 5

Summary record of meeting held on 26 May 2011 - Annex 1 - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 9 February 2011 - Annex 1 - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 14 October 2010 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 17 June 2010 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 28 January 2010 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 21 October 2009 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 15 June 2009 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 29-30 January 2009 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 6-7 November 2008 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2

Summary record of meeting held on 19-20 June 2008 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 28 February 2008 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2

Summary record of meeting held on 29 & 30 November 2007 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2

Summary record of meeting held on 03 October 2007 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2

Summary record of meeting held on 28 June 2007 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 3 - Annex 4 updated 28-05-2008

Summary record of meeting held on 13 February 2007 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 3 - Annex 4

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Consumer Safety Network

As from 2008, the Consumer Safety Working Party (CSWP) and the Product Safety Network (PSN) merged to form the Consumer Safety Network (CSN) to stimulate reflection and discuss topics related to consumer product and service safety and knowledge base for policy work.

The CSN remains a consultative experts group chaired by the European Commission and composed of national experts from the administrations of the 27 Member States and EFTA/EEA countries. In recent years, the main areas of discussion have been the safety of consumer products (such as lighters, joint actions on market surveillance,...), and of consumer services, including fire safety in hotels and relevant data collection. It should meet on average three times a year, usually in conjuction with the General Product Safety Committee meetings.

Minutes of previous CSN meetings

Summary record of meeting held on 10 February 2012 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3 updated 26-04-2012

Summary record of meeting held on 14 October 2011 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 27 May 2011 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 10 February 2011 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 15 October 2010 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 18 June 2010 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 29 January 2010 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 22.10.2009 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 16.6.2009 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 27.3.2009 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

Summary record of meeting held on 31.1.2008 - Annex 1 (agenda) - Annex 2 - Annex 3

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Risk Assessment Working Group

To improve the RAPEX guidelines on risk assessment, the Commission has called for a working group of Member State experts.

Guidance on how to draft a risk assessment is provided by the RAPEX Guidelines .
Guidelines in pdf format
However, even though the basic concepts and methodology are sound, the guidelines on risk assessment have proven difficult to apply in practice. Different types of products, consumers and risks lead to different assessments, and consequently an uneven level of consumer protection across the EU. The working group has discussed during 2006 and 2007 on how to improve the specific guidance on risk assessment contained in the RAPEX guidelines.

Presentations to the GPSD Committee

6 November 2008

28 June 2007

13 February 2007

Workshop on the new risk assessment Guidelines

The first public draft of the new Guidelines was presented at a Workshop on 11 December 2007. The Workshop saw over 100 participants from Member State authorities, business, law firms, and participants from outside Europe. It presented the background and application of the new draft Guidelines, international activities in the area, the business perspective, and provided a training session.

Participants were invited to provide comments, including after the Workshop, in order to improve the new Guidelines. Distribution of the Guidelines to further stakeholders is encouraged, and comments are welcome. The Guidelines thus improved will be put to a public internet consultation in early 2008.

Workshop documents:

Agenda

The new draft risk assessment Guidelines

Keynote address

Presentations

• Risk Assessment for Dummies
• Risk Assessment of chemical & physical hazards: A similar approach
• Related Risk Assessment Activities EU and internationally
• Managing Risk in the Supply Chain

Training examples

• Children dermal exposure to DEHP from use of air mattress
• Human eye exposure to flying objects from use of crosspane hammer head
• Children oral exposure to small parts from use of magnetic play set

Conclusions

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