JA2016 - Climbing Equipment

The Joint Action 2016 (JA2016) will see work commence on personal protective equipment. Climbing equipment has been chosen as the first specific product class to be addressed during this JA2016 as a result of the general priority-setting exercise for the Joint Action carried out amongst the Member States.

This work will include surveillance activities, product testing, risk assessment of the products tested and eventual action needed to be taken. Appropriate test methods for the other products will be identified as needed depending on the products sampled. The participants will carry out coordinated market surveillance in their national markets. 

The work plan comprises 6 project meetings (including a 2-day meeting with the participation of stakeholders), testing of an estimated 210 products with the results being presented at the final conference of the Joint Action. This work will of course be closely coordinated with the groups working on standards concerning PPE tools. The Joint Action will support the work with the definition and checking of the test methods, the reproducibility of the tests, etc.

The participants

The 9 Member States involved in the project are: Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Latvia, Malata, Bulgaria, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway. PROSAFE is the leader of this product activity.

The Final Technical Report of this activity can be downloaded by clicking on the cover page of the report. Very interesting information can be found within this report and it is particularly useful for market surveillance authorities and anybody else interested to know more about market surveillance of Personal Protective Equipment - Climbing Equipment.

JA2009 - Helmets

The Joint Action on Helmets conducted in 2009 (JA2009) sought to ensure that only safe helmets are placed on the EU market and that they all carry the appropriate warnings and instructions. Eleven EU market surveillance authorities jointly took action under the coordination of PROSAFE so that non-compliant helmets were immediately removed from the market.

 This Joint Action has focused on the following types of helmets:

• Helmets for alpine skiers and snowboarders (in relation to EN1077:2007).
• Helmets for pedal cyclists and for users of skateboards and roller skates (in relation to EN1078:1997 and EN1078:1997/A1:2005).
• Equestrian (horse-riding) helmets for daily use and related performance helmets (in relation to EN1384:1996 and EN14572:2005 respectively).
• EN 1080:1997, covering helmets for young children, which mainly addresses problems associated with the strangulation of children playing while wearing helmets, has also been referred to within this Joint Action.

The experience gathered as well as the results from the sampling and testing exercises, including best practices identified throughout this Joint Action, have been disseminated to relevant stakeholders and market surveillance authorities that are not directly involved in the project.

The Final Implementation Report of this Joint Action is available and provides information about the activities undertaken, the participants involved, the results obtained and a financial statement comparing all expenditures against the budget. This project has been executed under the 2009 call for tender and the reporting requirements may differ from actions granted under calls outlined in other years.