The European Parliament has voted in favour of a Commission proposal to streamline and simplify the rules for pressure equipment products.

The Pressure Equipment Directive covers a very wide range of products from fire extinguishers to industrial equipment such as compressors, heat exchangers, storage vessels and piping constituting large and complex assemblies use in manufacturing and process industries.

The proposal will introduce more coherent rules aimed at lowering compliance costs for businesses, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises,  including clearer responsibilities for manufacturers, importers and distributors selling products.

Under the rules, product safety will be improved through better traceability which will allow tracking down defective or unsafe products. It will also ensure that authorities will be better equipped to stop dangerous products imported from third countries through improved national market surveillance.

European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, said:

"Today’s vote updating the Pressure Equipment Directive is yet another initiative to streamline EU product legislation leading to reductions in administrative burden and costs. Common rules for industrial products allow manufacturers to have more legal certainty. They can better organise their manufacturing processes, enhance the quality and safety of products and invest in innovation.”

Pressure equipment is widely used in the process industries, the high-temperature process industry and in energy production and the supply of utilities.

Under European internal market legislation, pressure equipment and assemblies must be safe; meet essential safety requirements regarding design, manufacture and testing; satisfy appropriate conformity assessment procedures; and carry the CE marking – which represents Conformité Européenne, or ‘European Conformity’.

The initiative is part of a general effort to make product safety more effective across the EU, to ensure greater consistency and to facilitate complying with the rules throughout all sectors. Similar proposals were recently adopted for eight other industrial sectors (IP/14/111).