Introductory text

United Kingdom

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2066

of 17 November 2015

establishing, pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council, minimum requirements and the conditions for mutual recognition for the certification of natural persons carrying out installation, servicing, maintenance, repair or decommissioning of electrical switchgear containing fluorinated greenhouse gases or recovery of fluorinated greenhouse gases from stationary electrical switchgear

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases and repealing Regulation (EC) No 842/2006^f1, and in particular Article 10(12) thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 includes obligations concerning the certification of natural persons with regards to electrical switchgear containing fluorinated greenhouse gases. In addition to recovery, their certification covers installation, servicing, maintenance, repair and decommissioning. Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 also includes requirements for the content of the certification programmes containing information on relevant technologies to replace or to reduce the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases and the safe handling of such technologies.

(2)

It is therefore necessary for the purposes of the application of Article 10 of Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 to update the minimum requirements as to the scope of activities as well as the skills and knowledge to be covered, specifying the modalities of the certification and the conditions for mutual recognition.

(3)

To take existing qualification and certification schemes into account, in particular those that have been adopted on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 842/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council^f2 which has since been repealed, and the requirements laid down in Commission Regulation (EC) No 305/2008^f3, those requirements should be incorporated into this Regulation to the extent possible.

(4)

Regulation (EC) No 305/2008 should therefore be repealed.

(5)

In order for the Member States to have time to adapt their certification programmes to cover activities related to installation, servicing, maintenance, repair and decommissioning of electrical switchgear containing fluorinated greenhouse gases, as well as recovery from switchgear other than high voltage switchgear referred to in Regulation (EC) No 305/2008, it is appropriate that the requirement to hold a certificate in accordance with this Regulation should apply as of 1 July 2017 to the activities related to installation, servicing, maintenance, repair and decommissioning of electrical switchgear containing fluorinated greenhouse gases.

(6)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee established by Article 24 of Regulation (EU) No 517/2014,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: OJ L 150, 20.5.2014, p. 195.
f2: Regulation (EC) No 842/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 on certain fluorinated greenhouse gases (OJ L 161, 14.6.2006, p. 1).
f3: Commission Regulation (EC) No 305/2008 of 2 April 2008 establishing, pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 842/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, minimum requirements and the conditions for mutual recognition for the certification of personnel recovering certain fluorinated greenhouse gases from high-voltage switchgear (OJ L 92, 3.4.2008, p. 17).