30. 6. 94 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 164/15 DIRECTIVE 94/25/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 June 1994 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to recreational craft THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 100a thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189b of the Treaty (%), Whereas the internal market is to comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured; Whereas the laws, regulations and administrative provisions in force in the various Member States relating to the safety characteristics of recreational craft differ in scope and content; whereas such disparities are liable to create barriers to trade and unequal conditions of competition within the internal market; Whereas harmonization of national legislation is the only way in which to remove these barriers to free trade; whereas this objective cannot be satisfactorily achieved by the individual Member States; whereas this Directive merely lays down the requirements vital to freedom of movement for recreational craft; Whereas this Directive should cover only recreational craft of a minimum length of 2,5 m and a maximum length of 24 m, derived from the ISO standards; Whereas the removal of technical barriers in the field of recreational craft and their components, to the extent (') OJ No C 123, 15. 5. 1992, p. 7. (!) OJ No C 313, 30. 11. 1992, p. 38. ) () Opinion of the European Parliament of 16 November 1992 (O] No C 337, 21. 12. 1992, p. 17); Council common position of 16 December 1993 (OJ No C 137, 19. 5. 1994, - p. 1); Decision of the European Parliament of 9 March 1994 (OJ No C 91, 28. 3. 1994). that they cannot be removed by mutual recognition of equivalence among all the Member States, should follow the new approach set out in the Council resolution of 7 May 1985 (*) which calls for the definition of essential requirements on safety and other aspects which are important for the general well-being; whereas paragraph 3 of Article 100a provides that, in its proposals, concerning health, safety, environmental protection and consumer protection, the Commission will take as a base a high level of protection; whereas the essential requirements constitute the criteria with which recreational craft, partly completed craft and their components when separate and when installed must comply; Whereas, therefore, this Directive sets out essential requirements only; whereas, in order to facilitate the task of proving compliance with the essential requirements, harmonized European standards are necessary for recreational craft and their components as referred to in Annex II; whereas harmonized European standards are drawn up by private bodies and must retain their non-mandatory status; whereas, for this purpose, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (Cenelec) are recognized as the bodies competent to _adopt harmonized standards which follow the general guidelines for cooperation between the Commission and those two bodies, signed on 13 November 1984; whereas, for the purposes of this Directive, a harmonized standard is a technical specification (European Standard or harmonization document) adopted by one or other of those bodies, or by both, at the prompting of the Commission pursuant to Council Directive 83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (°) and pursuant to the general guidelines referred to above; Whereas, in view of the nature of the risks involved in the use of recreational craft and their components, it is necessary to establish procedures applying to the assessment of compliance with the essential requirements of the Directive; whereas these procedures must be devised in the light of the level of risk which may be inherent in recreational craft and their components; whereas, therefore, each category of conformity must be supplemented by an appropriate procedure or a choice between several equivalent procedures; whereas the (*y OJ No C 136, 4. 6. 1985, p. 1. (°) OJ No L 109, 26. 4. 1983, p. 8. Directive as last amended by Directive 88/182/EEC (O] No L 81, 26. 3. 1988, p. 75).