Congress on CEN Standards

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Feb 15) – A milestone in the origin of new EU safety standards for bicycles: an explicatory congress organized by Colibi/coliped gave the bicycle industry as such a first opportunity to learn about the legal and practical effects of the egg ponded by Technical Committee TC333 and accepted as true offspring by the Commission. (The TC333 started in 1998, and got a mild reproach from the congress for having worked in silence till after their proposals had been finalized). The hatchling will be implemented in the national legislations of the 25 EU members plus Rumania, and three Efta countries. The 90-odd congress attendants got an insight in the technical aspects and test methods of the new CEN standards for bicycle safety. The second theme were the legislative aspects of the new standards related to liability, and the third theme was about the precautions (such as insurance, but there are several other complementary tools) distributors, manufacturers and importers can take against defective products and subsequent liability claims. The last stage of the congress, i.e. the questions session, probably induced chairman Takens to summarize the overall results of the congress at the end of the day as ‘overall confusion’. It is clear that this congress is urgently in need of a follow-up.(OB)