Page 4 - CE Marking

PART 1 CE-Marking
1
A ny product that comes under one of the so-called New
Approach Directives of the European Union (EU) and is going
to be placed on the EU market has to bear the CE-marking.
‘CE’ stands for European Conformity. The mark is a legal requirement,
by which a manufacturer claims that his product complies with the
product safety requirements of EU legislation.
Free movement of products is the cornerstone of the EU. The directives
on CE-marking are a direct result of this: their very purpose is to
facilitate free movement of products within the EU by setting minimum
requirements for product safety.
In the past, a manufacturer who wanted to sell his product in each of
the 15 EU countries (now 25) would practically have to supply 15 (25)
different products. But CE-marking has changed all that. Since 1987,
the so-called ‘NewApproach’, an EU policy on technical harmonisation
and standardisation regarding all products entering the EU market, has
resulted in 22 directives on this subject. These directives set minimum
requirements that have to be transposed by all EU member states
into national legislation. It is up to each individual country to decide
CE-marking can be seen as a product passport to enter EU countries. The
CE-marking process can however be quite complicated, as it involves testing
procedures, application of standards, system assessments, technical files
and user manuals. CE-marking requirements vary from one directive to
another, and can even vary within a directive. To provide some clarity, the
CBI has taken the initiative to analyse the CE-marking process for exporters
in developing countries. The results of this analysis can be found in the
AccessGuide database, the CBI’s database on European non-tariff trade
barriers, @ www.cbi.nl/bulletin.
PART 1 : THE CE QUESTION MARK
Free Movement