| During 2006 and 2007, the Commission has developed improved RAPEX Risk Assessment Guidelines with the assistence of Member State experts. To present and discuss the revised Guidelines, the Commission is organising a Workshop, intended for participants from the Member States, industry, NGOs, and others, which will give an overview on the background and the approach of the Guidelines, and on how to apply them in a practical exercise. Background Many European market surveillance authorities are currently involved in the EMARS project, Enhancing Market Surveillance through Best Practice. The aim is to share information, plan more joint market surveillance actions, and reach consensus on working methods. One of the planned deliverables of this project is a book ‘Best Practice in Market Surveillance’. The outline of this book has been presented in a workshop on 29/30 October 2007. This book will include a chapter on risk assessment of consumer products. A team of experts from various EU member states has prepared this chapter and a draft is available. Link with RAPEX Guidelines As noted above since early 2006, a European working group (WG IRAG) has discussed a revision of the risk assessment method used in the context of RAPEX notifications. The European Commission will present the draft revised procedure on December 11th in the EU Workshop on the Revised Risk Assessment Guidelines for the General Product Safety Directive 2001/95/EC. There will be a consultation period for stakeholders, and after that new RAPEX Guidelines will be finalised. The EMARS team of experts on risk assessment has worked in close co-operation with the WG IRAG. The intention is to promote the new RAPEX Guidelines as the current best practice for risk assessment of consumer products. The Best Practice book will provide additional information about the risk assessment practice, practical solutions for problems, examples, and the like. EMARS workshop In conjunction to the WG IRAG workshop on December 11th, the EMARS Risk Assessment team invites those participants who work in market surveillance for a half-day meeting on December 12th. The specialists on risk assessment will be already in Brussels, and we expect that this is the ideal audience to consult on the risk assessment chapter of the EMARS book; we hope that selecting this date makes it convenient and efficient for you to combine both meetings. Purpose of the EMARS Workshop The EMARS Workshop will be an opportunity to review the draft risk assessment chapter in ‘Best Practice in Market Surveillance’. The participants will be able to discuss whether they consider the content of this chapter as the best practice for Europe. We plan to do this in a very interactive way, by going through some examples, verifying our ideas about difficult issues and recording all remarks made. After this Workshop, the EMARS team will revise the chapter into a final draft which will be made available on the internet. Call to register If you are working in market surveillance and intend to participate in the EU Workshop on the Revised Risk Assessment Guidelines for the General Product Safety Directive, please consider the possibility to attend also the EMARS specialist workshop on the next day. In order to plan the EMARS workshop, we kindly ask you to pre-register by sending your name and e-mail address to the EMARS secretariat: info@emars.eu. You will receive in advance the latest version of the risk assessment chapter, the agenda and details about the venue. |