European Directives

The European Directives have the dual purpose of:

• Ensuring the free movement of goods through a technical harmonization
• Guaranteeing a high level of public interest protection.

Innovative features of this legislation, addressed to the introduction of CE marking, include:

• The definition of mandatory essential requirements
• The setting up of appropriate conformity assessment procedures.

The Manufacturer assumes the responsibility of designing and performing a product, bound to be placed on the Community market, retaining the overall control along the whole fabrication course.

For that the Manufacturer must give clear evidence of having the necessary competence.

Consistently with this responsibility, the Manufacturer is due to ensure that the conformity of his product is assessed to the essential requirements of the applicable Directives.

Where a Directive requires products and/or systems to be independently assessed, this must be done by a "Notified Body". However, even if the Notified Body is involved, the responsibility of the product conformity is primarily on the Manufacturer.