Council Directive 87/404/EEC of 25 June 1987 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to simple pressure vessels3 has been substantially amended several times4. In the interests of clarity and rationality the said Directive should be codified.

Member States have the responsibility of ensuring the safety on their territory of persons, domestic animals and property with regard to the hazards resulting from the leakage or bursting of simple pressure vessels.

In each Member State, mandatory provisions define in particular the safety level required of simple pressure vessels by specifying design and operating characteristics, conditions of installation and use and inspection procedures before and after the placing on the market. These mandatory provisions do not necessarily lead to different safety levels from one Member State to another but do, by their disparity, hinder trade within the Community.

This Directive should therefore contain only mandatory and essential requirements. To facilitate proof of conformity with the essential requirements, it is necessary to have harmonised standards at Community level, in particular as to the design, operation and installation of simple pressure vessels, so that products complying with them may be assumed to conform to the safety requirements. These standards harmonised at Community level are drawn up by private bodies and should remain non-mandatory texts. For that purpose, the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (Cenelec) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) are recognised as the competent bodies for the adoption of harmonised standards in accordance with the general guidelines5 for cooperation between the Commission, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and those three bodies signed on 28 March 2003.

The Council has already adopted a series of Directives designed to remove technical barriers to trade in accordance with the principles established in its Resolution of 7 May 1985 on a new approach to technical harmonisation and standards6; each of those Directives provides for the affixing of the ‘CE’ marking. The Commission, in its Communication of 15 June 1989 on a global approach to certification and testing7, proposed that common rules be drawn up concerning a ‘CE’ marking with a single design. The Council, in its Resolution of 21 December 1989 on a global approach to conformity assessment8, approved as a guiding principle the adoption of a consistent approach such as this with regard to the use of the ‘CE’ marking. The two basic elements of the new approach which should be applied are the essential requirements and the conformity assessment procedures.

A check on compliance with the relevant technical requirements is necessary in order to provide effective protection for users and third parties. The existing inspection procedures differ from one Member State to another. In order to avoid multiple inspections, which are in effect barriers to the free movement of vessels, arrangements should be made for the mutual recognition of inspection procedures by the Member States. In order to facilitate the mutual recognition of inspection procedures, Community procedures should be established as well as the criteria for appointing the bodies responsible for carrying out tests, surveillance and verification.

The presence on a simple pressure vessel of the ‘CE’ marking should raise a presumption that it satisfies the provisions of this Directive and should therefore make it unnecessary, upon the importation and putting into service of the vessel, to repeat the inspections already carried out. Nevertheless simple pressure vessels might represent a safety hazard. Provision should therefore be made for a procedure to reduce this hazard.

This Directive should be without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States relating to the time limits for transposition into national law and application of the Directives set out in Annex IV, Part B,