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(1) Council Directive 93/15/EEC of 5 April 1993 on the harmonization of the provisions relating to the placing on the market and supervision of explosives for civil uses has been substantially amended . Since further amendments are to be made, that Directive should be recast in the interests of clarity.

(2) It is necessary to clarify in this Directive that certain articles were identified following the United Nations recommendations on the transport of dangerous goods as being pyrotechnic articles or ammunition, thus falling outside the scope of this Directive. Commission Directive 2004/57/EC of 23 April 2004 on the identification of pyrotechnic articles and certain ammunition for the purposes of Council Directive 93/15/EEC on the harmonisation of the provisions relating to the placing on the market and supervision of explosives for civil uses , which currently contains a list of such articles, should therefore be repealed.

(3) Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products lays down rules on the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies, provides a framework for the market surveillance of products and for controls on products from third countries, and lays down the general principles of the CE marking.

(4) Decision No 768/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on a common framework for the marketing of products , lays down common principles and reference provisions intended to apply across sectoral legislation in order to provide a coherent basis for revision or recasts of that legislation. Directive 93/15/EEC should therefore be adapted to that Decision.

(5) Safety during storage is covered by Council Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December 1996 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances which sets out safety requirements for establishments where explosives are present. Safety of explosives during transport is regulated by international conventions and agreements, including the United Nations recommendations on the transport of dangerous goods. Those aspects should therefore not fall under the scope of this Directive.

(6) Pyrotechnic articles require appropriate measures to ensure the protection of end-users and the safety of the public. Pyrotechnic articles are covered by Directive 2013/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 June 2013 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of pyrotechnic articles . This Directive should therefore not apply to pyrotechnic articles.

(7) The scope of this Directive should cover ammunition, but only as regards the rules governing controls on transfers and the associated arrangements. Since ammunition is transferred under conditions similar to those under which arms are transferred, transfers of ammunition should be governed by provisions similar to those applicable to arms, as set out in Council Directive 91/477/EEC of 18 June 1991 on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons .

(8) This Directive should apply to all forms of supply, including distance selling.

(9) The definition of the explosives covered by this Directive should be based on the definition of such products as set out in the United Nations recommendations on the transport of dangerous goods.

(10) In order to ensure the free movement of explosives it is necessary to harmonise the laws relating to making explosives available on the market.

(11) Economic operators should be responsible for the compliance of explosives with this Directive in relation to their respective roles in the supply chain, so as to ensure a high level of protection of public interests, such as health and safety of persons and public security and to guarantee fair competition on the Union market.

(12) All economic operators intervening in the supply and distribution chain should take appropriate measures to ensure that they only make available on the market explosives which are in conformity with this Directive. It is necessary to provide for a clear and proportionate distribution of obligations which correspond to the role of each economic operator in the supply and distribution chain.

(13) In order to facilitate communication between economic operators, market surveillance authorities and end-users, Member States should encourage economic operators to include a website address in addition to the postal address.

(14) The manufacturer, having detailed knowledge of the design and production process, is best placed to carry out the conformity assessment procedure. Conformity assessment should therefore remain solely the obligation of the manufacturer.

(15) It is necessary to ensure that explosives from third countries entering the Union market comply with this Directive, and in particular that appropriate conformity assessment procedures have been carried out by manufacturers with regard to those explosives. Provision should therefore be made for importers to make sure that the explosives they place on the market comply with the requirements of this Directive and that they do not place on the market explosives which do not comply with such requirements or present a risk. Provision should also be made for importers to make sure that conformity assessment procedures have been carried out and that marking of explosives and documentation drawn up by manufacturers are available for inspection by the competent national authorities.

(16) The distributor makes an explosive available on the market after it has been placed on the market by the manufacturer or the importer and should act with due care to ensure that its handling of the explosive does not adversely affect the compliance of the explosive.

(17) Any economic operator that either places an explosive on the market under his own name or trade mark or modifies an explosive in such a way that compliance with this Directive may be affected should be considered to be the manufacturer and should assume the obligations of the manufacturer.

(18) Distributors and importers, being close to the market place, should be involved in market surveillance tasks carried out by the competent national authorities, and should be prepared to participate actively, providing those authorities with all necessary information relating to the explosive concerned.

(24) To ensure effective access to information for market surveillance purposes, the information required to identify all applicable Union acts should be available in a single EU declaration of conformity. In order to reduce the administrative burden on economic operators, that single EU declaration of conformity may be a dossier made up of relevant individual declarations of conformity.

(25) The CE marking, indicating the conformity of an explosive, is the visible consequence of a whole process comprising conformity assessment in a broad sense. General principles governing the CE marking are set out in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008. Rules governing the affixing of the CE marking should be laid down in this Directive.

(26) The conformity assessment procedures set out in this Directive require the intervention of conformity assessment bodies, which are notified by the Member States to the Commission.

(27) Experience has shown that the criteria set out in Directive 93/15/EEC that conformity assessment bodies have to fulfil to be notified to the Commission are not sufficient to ensure a uniformly high level of performance of notified bodies throughout the Union. It is, however, essential that all notified bodies perform their functions to the same level and under conditions of fair competition. That requires the setting of obligatory requirements for conformity assessment bodies wishing to be notified in order to provide conformity assessment services.

(28) In order to ensure a consistent level of conformity assessment quality it is also necessary to set requirements for notifying authorities and other bodies involved in the assessment, notification and monitoring of notified bodies.

(29) If a conformity assessment body demonstrates conformity with the criteria laid down in harmonised standards, it should be presumed to comply with the corresponding requirements set out in this Directive.

(30) The system set out in this Directive should be complemented by the accreditation system provided for in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008. Since accreditation is an essential means of verifying the competence of conformity assessment bodies, it should also be used for the purposes of notification.

(31) Transparent accreditation as provided for in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, ensuring the necessary level of confidence in certificates of conformity, should be considered by the national public authorities throughout the Union as the preferred means of demonstrating the technical competence of conformity assessment bodies. However, national authorities may consider that they possess the appropriate means of carrying out that evaluation themselves. In such cases, in order to ensure the appropriate level of credibility of evaluations carried out by other national authorities, they should provide the Commission and the other Member States with the necessary documentary evidence demonstrating the compliance of the conformity assessment bodies evaluated with the relevant regulatory requirements.