Page 9 - CE Marking

PART 2 CE-Marking
6
D irectives are European law and are binding for all EU member
states. Each member state has to translate the directives
into its own national laws. So a directive applies to the state
and not to its citizens as such. Only after a state has adopted the
directive in its national legislation, does it apply to citizens.
Prior to the New Approach, there was an EU directive for every
product. It included detailed information on how the directive should
be implemented. However, designing these directives took the EU so
much time that they were usually quickly outdated.
The NewApproach directives have changed all that. To begin with, they
each apply to an entire range of products. For instance, the Directive
Free movement of goods is a cornerstone of the EU single market. One of
the means of achieving it was laid down in the Council Resolution of 1985
on the New Approach to technical harmonisation and standardisation. CE-
marking is a direct result of the New Approach Directives and some 60 per
cent of all industrial products in the European Community are required to
bear the CE-mark.
In this second article on CE-marking we will looks at how the New Approach
has structured the legislative framework of CE-marking into directives, as well
as the first two steps a manufacturer must take in order to obtain the CE- mark
for a product, as outlined in the CBI’s CE-marking implementation plan.
If you go towww.cbi.nl/bulletin, you will automatically be directed to the specific
introduction on CE-marking in the EU.
PART 2 : HARMONISATON OF
NATIONAL STANDARDS
IN EU DIRECTIVES
Essential Requirements