E.U: Leave or Stay? Your thoughts.

Sadly it aapears those that learn their history are doomed to watch everyone else repeat those mistakes.

 

Huh. I thought that was a requirement for posting on the internet.

 

I know it's a derail on my part but it's 20mg

Don't fret it mate, we've all been guilty of doing that.

 

Apologies for urinating on your fire, however, the recent changes to the EU directives and harmonised standards regarding PPE for motorcyclists see's us with clothing that is less protective than clothing which was previously available.

Oh, and helmets are not covered by the EU PPE directive, they're covered either by a British BS standard or a United Nations regulation.

 

Urinate away! I refer you to my earlier disclaimer!

 

Helmets have their very own EU PPE directive. On top of that there is a specific directive for speed/e-bikes.

 

I was reading about speed pedelecs the other day... They basically have to be registered as motor vehicles and have a number plate. At the sort of money those thing cost you'd be better off getting an actual motorcycle!

 

That raises the question of why regulations on PPE for motorcyclists were lowered as there's nothing that says you can't have higher standards than what the EU requires, EU standards are essentially minimum requirements.

 

Yeah, for toys (lets face it, any roofless vehicle is worthless for commuting in UK weather) the prices are pure comedy.
And a biker wouldn't be seen dead on them.

 

As with the TPD, industry lobbying and member states interfering.

 

There is only one EU PPE directive, it can be read here https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-...ed-standards/personal-protective-equipment_en , motorcycle helmets are not classified as PPE and are as such outside of the scope of the directive.

 

It's all a bit moot, none of it will probably apply soon.

 

None of that prevents individual countries from having higher standards though, if the UK wanted all PPE sold in the UK to meet a UK standard that was higher than whatever the EU directive says there's nothing preventing them from doing so.

IDK what measurements are used for things like PPE but if the EU directive says all PPE must withstand a 200kg weight traveling at 20Mph the UK could decide that's not enough and require all PPE sold in the UK to withstand 40Mph.

Like i said EU standards/directives are minimum requirements, if the UK thought motorcycle helmets should be classified as PPE then they're free to pass laws to that effect.

 

But it would make a mockery of the common market, common standards, common directives, common goals etc.
Industry would be dead set against it too.
Moving on to a regulation instead of a directive, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02004R1935-20090807 , France and Germany have their own national legislation in addition to that, I won't say above as I've seen no evidence that their requirements offer any additional safety to the consumer.

It's a ruddy nightmare, clients can't just ask for testing to cover them for the EU market, they need to know if they're going to be distributed in France and Germany first, which they won't always know.
So they either pay £1000's extra to cover those 2 markets or specifically exclude their goods from those markets.

 

I realise it's not entirely the same, but it's similar in car parts.

Germany is far more stringent on their testing, so what is perfectly legal in the UK is often not legal here. Parts need special approval and inspection of both the completed part and the environment where the parts are made to ensure they adhere to the required standards. I looked into it, the minimum cost for a TUV approval for a part seems to be in the ~£30,000 range. So most manufacturers don't bother.

My RS is UK legal (With the QD steering wheel swapped..), but it's not here.

Saving grace, with only 280~ in the country, inspectors don't know **** about them, so if a mod looks factory..

 

You're putting a lot of things into the mixing bowl there, just because they all have the word common doesn't mean they're all trying to achieve the same goal, the common market is separate from common standards which are separate from their common goals.

The common market (not that it exists anymore) was intended to make it easier for goods, capital, and services to move between countries. It doesn't mean a country can't ban something from being sold in their country or that the same goods must be sold in all countries, it just makes it easier to move stuff around, it's still up to the manufacture or whoever to make sure what they're moving around meets the standards of the country they want to move it to.

Common standards set a minimum standard across the market but doesn't prevent manufactures from either choosing to exclude countries within it that have higher standards or investing more to reach the highest standards, that's no different than the choices that have always faced manufactures.

A 'common' directive is essentially another name for common standards, and I'm not really sure how their common goals relate to the market and standards.

 

Harmonised standards for all of the directives listed https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/european-standards/harmonised-standards_en give a presumption of conformity to the essential health and safety rules within those directives, meets the ESR's and you can sell your article / widget anywhere within the EU.

It doesn't matter that the standards are not mandatory for now.
If a member state decides that a directive doesn't go far enough and wants to put its own additional layer on top how would they go about it in such a way that they wouldn't have to answer a case if restricting the free movement of goods and placing barriers in front of trade? I've never seen it done for those in the link.

And going back to the TPD, no vaping device / mod etc. meets it ( not that I'm complaining), so why have it if there's no enforcement?

The abuse of directives by some member states makes my head spin, points added with bad debunked science should not be permitted it makes a mockery of the EU commission.

 

Not sure that's entirely true.

On a general point I've always agreed there are flaws in the EU, we're out now and fully out after transition. There's flaws with my house but i'm not walking out the door without a general idea of where i'm going.

What concerns me more right now is not transitioning out of a system with flaws but more that the Brexit Department was shut down and its powers and responsibilities are nowhere to be seen. Nobody can say which departments are dealing with what nor what Ministers are in charge.

It feels like we're waiting for the implementation period to end, the crap to hit the fan and everything but Brexit being the reason as, you know, that Department was shut down when we 'left' and so it can't be that.

 

It's a proportional system to the final result remains to be seen but, Ireland had it's GE today -

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Direct lift from the TPD;

I've never seen a mod that complies.
And that's before you delve into the murky world of consistent nicotine delivery.