The Directive 2007/23/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the placing on the market of pyrotechnic articles has been adopted by the European Union (EU) on the 23rd of May, 2007. This Directive should help manufacturers and importers that had to comply with a different regulation in each country to get technical approvals of their pyrotechnic articles. Although this directive will reduce the administrative burden for everybody by introducing the CE marking and certification procedure, its substitution and application instead of the current national regulations may create difficulties in the beginning. In this paper we present information related to the different parts of the Directive dealing specifically with fireworks ; taking into account the present French regulation and European standards on fireworks, we remind and comment topics like categorisation, labelling, testing methods for fireworks characterisation and requirements for safety levels ; these elements are reviewed and commented in the scope to help people concerned to comply with the Essential Safety Requirements (ESR) of the new Directive.