1. RAPEX warning system

RAPEX is a quick warning information system, providing information about dangerous consumer products of non-food nature, except pharmaceutical products. It is used for direct communication of risks relevant to health and safety of consumers, who would otherwise came into contact with dangerous products.

The goal of the RAPEX system is to ensure quick information exchange between member states and the Committee, accepted by the member states, in order to eliminate or lower down the risks originating from the use or sale  of dangerous products.  A part of the notification system used by RAPEX, includes mandatory obligations to notify the authority about discovered risks, as well as voluntary notifications provided by manufactures and distributors.

The legal base of RAPEX is specified in the Board Directive describing general safety regulations of products (2001/95/ES). The legal base in the Czech Republic is described by law No. 102/2001 Coll., the General product safety and by directive of the Czech government No. 396/2004 Coll., describing processes, contents and forms of information sharing, as well as the existence of non-food products.

2. Information and warning system CIRCA

The European committee information system CIRCA is used for mutual sharing and distribution of information between member states, as described by so-called safeguard clauses, which are included in each sectional  ES directive. Since 2004, CTI has been a registered member of several work groups of the European committee, which deal with issues and problems relevant to each sectional directive. Each work group uses its own and separate part of the CIRCA information system, which enables the group to notify its members about announcements and applied measures, in accordance with safeguard clause of the applicable directive.

CTI participated in the following work groups. AdCo LVD (directive for low-capacity memory equipment), AdCo EMC (electromagnetic compatibility), AdCo TOYS (toy safety directive), AdCo ATEX (directive describing the use of equipment in explosive environments), AdCo MACHINERY (machinery and machine equipment safety directive) and WG Network (General product safety directive).

3. Organization PROSAFE                                       

CTI membership in the Prosafe organization enabled CTI to participate in the E-Mars project. Negotiations and meetings done under the E-Mars project focused on risk evaluation process. Also representatives of manufactures, supervisory authorities and other governing bodies of the EU were present, in order to familiarize themselves with studies such as Risk Assessment Guidelines. Risk analysis methods play a major role during product market introduction process. Methods used in the Czech Republic fully comply and correspond with presentations that appeared in this seminar.  The subject of the meeting focused mostly on the convergence of methods used during analysis of technical equipment used by consumers.

Employees of CTI directly participated and worked on the development section of the Rapid Advice Forum project. This software supervises the market, under the E-Mars project, and makes sure that  quick and efficient exchange of information and question answering, coming from the member states, (for example questions relevant to personal safety products) may be performed . Should some member state have doubts whether particular product is in compliance with the basic safety requirements or whether such product is covered by applicable directive (e.g. GPSD, LVD, toys, OOP), the state can request help during the evaluation process of the product or an it can request an advice, showing the state how to proceed during the request sending process.   Based on the nature and the urgency level of the request, the summarized answer given by the Secretariat of the E-Mars project, may be sent to the requesting party in shorter time period.

4. Cooperation with national inspection bodies of the EU states  

The key cooperation regarding special cases and information exchange between national inspection bodies is done mostly on the AdCo group level - administrative international cooperation (pressure equipment, constructional products, machine equipment, elevators, passenger lifts, medical equipment, low-voltage equipment, electromagnetic compatibility, noise, toys, personal safety items and ATEX).

CTI representatives participates in AdCo group meetings, which focus on personal safety items and toys, were employees of supervisory and other bodies, who are responsible for the application of European directives No. 89/686/EEC and No. 88/378/EEC are trying to solve questions of each member state in connection with the classification and evaluation of personal safety items and toys. Thanks to this administrative cooperation and mutual exchange of information, inspections became more efficient.  These meetings helped to clarify some approaches and viewpoints and help to unify procedures used by inspection bodies during problem solving processes, relevant to the above-mention assortment of consumer products, while observing and supervising the inner market.

5. Foreign work activities

As far as foreign business activities are concerned, employees of the CTI are members of many AdCo groups. GPSD Network meetings represent the GPSD Board meeting, where these inspections will take place according to the information received from the representatives of each member state.  Such inspections will be done in close cooperation with customs officers. The last work group focused on problems and issues relevant to the lighter project, which have been tested in the LNA and Burelu Veritas laboratories.  The testing focused on lighter parameters and whether they are in compliance with the EN9994 standards. Twin cooperation program with Bulgaria and Albany was also discussed, as well as the preparation of the planned twin cooperation with Slovakia, focusing on the implementation of MID. 

Since 2004 the CTI has been actively participating in the product safety field organized by the Ministry of Environment, Health and Consumer Protection (StMUGV) in Munich.  This mainly concerns regular exchange of information and experiences, as well as active cooperation between neighbouring German countries (SRN) and Austria, as well as with neighbouring states, such as the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Hungary and Slovenia.