Public consultation on the possible revision of the Mutual Recognition Regulation (EC) No 764/2008

Today the European Commission published a public consultation on the possible revision of the Mutual Recognition Regulation (EC) No 764/2008 applying in the field of the free movement of goods.

If a business is lawfully selling a product in one EU country, it should be able to sell it in other EU countries without adapting it to the national rules of that country, even when there are no common European rules on how the product has to be manufactured (i.e. rules on the characteristics of the product, its size, composition, etc.). This is the principle of mutual recognition.

The right to sell a product lawfully marketed in another EU country can be refused only when the EU country of destination has diverging product requirements whose mandatory imposition is justified by the need to protect a certain public interest, and those requirements are necessary and proportionate for achieving that objective.

How mutual recognition works in practice is defined by Regulation (EC) No 764/2008 (the Mutual Recognition Regulation). The Regulation establishes, among other things, Product Contact Points to assist businesses wishing to sell products which are already lawfully sold in other EU countries. It also establishes an obligation for national authorities to notify and justify any decision which denies mutual recognition and market access because of overriding national rules.

With this consultation the Commission seeks the views of all interested parties on:

• the mutual recognition principle and its possible shortcomings.
• the functioning of the Mutual Recognition Regulation.
• potential options to be explored for the revision of the Mutual Recognition Regulation.

The consultation consists of an online questionnaire that is available in 23 official EU languages. A background document providing more details on mutual recognition (PDF, 183 kB) is available.

The consultation will run until 30 September 2016.

How to submit your response

You can answer this consultation as:

• a public authority.
• a business or business association.
• a citizen, a consumer organisation or another stakeholder.

Received contributions will be published on the internet in aggregated form through a consultation summary. Depending on your answer to the specific privacy question, your text-based contributions (replies to open questions) may be quoted in the report under your name, anonymously or only used published in aggregated form.

For detailed information on how the personal data included in the replies will be handled, please see the privacy statement.

This initiative was announced in the Single Market Strategy that was adopted by the Commission on 28 October 2015. A deeper and fairer Internal Market is the fourth priority policy area for the Commission.

Practical information

Organisations must register in the Transparency Register before they begin to answer the questions. The submissions of non-registered organisations will be published separately from those of registered ones. The input from individuals will also be published separately.

This consultation takes place in accordance with the general framework related to the protection of personal data.