The European Council of Ministers adopted a Resolution on 10 November 2003 inviting the Commission to prepare a revision of the New Approach to technical harmonisation in order to complete it and to update its different constitutive elements in order to ensure more coherence as between the various New approach directives already in operation and for future legislation. The Commission services have carried out a lot of preparatory work on the technical issues at stake both within its services and with the contribution of many stakeholders throughout the Union. Vice President Verheugen has decided that it is now time to carry out a public consultation on the results of this work so that the Commission services can move to the next stage which is the development of the legal proposal. The present document purports to bring together the various technical elements of the future proposal and put them into perspective. Various parts of the document have already been the subject of debate and comments. The latest comments received in April have not been taken into account in this version of the document but will obviously be taken on board for the preparation of the legal text. Those who have made comments should not reiterate them. New comments and contributions are of course very welcome. The present consultation is designed to widen the scope of our consultative process to ensure that it includes a maximum of stakeholders and interested parties. This consultation is open until 26 July 2006, the results will be made public on this website.