Definīcija:The difficulty of regulating all products and keeping specific directives up-to-date paved the way to a change in the legislative approach in favour of deregulation and flexibility. In contrast with the detailed, product-based directives of the Sectoral Approach (q.v.), New Approach directives are limited to fixing essential requirements on general issues such as safety, health and environment for large families of products and/or for horizontal risks.