Why CE Marking is the European Union's Commercial Recognition

The CE marking is required, if you want to sell your products in the European Community.
However, it's not as difficult to obtain as you'd think, and the rewards can be satisfying.

There comes a time in many companies' lives when they turn their eyes overseas as a potential
market for their goods. Then they turn their eyes right back home again. Why? Foreign standards,
namely the CE marking. If you'd like to sell your products in the European Union, which currently
consists of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, or to European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, you must be qualified to affix the CE marking to your product, or potentially suffer international prosecution.

It's not that the European Union (EU) wants to deter American business-on the contrary. The CE
marking is just meant to facilitate trade in Europe by removing the trade barriers between the
member countries. It is referred to as a "passport" that opens up the European market to a manufacturer. Once company obtains the CE marking for its product, it can sell that product in any of the European Community countries, without meeting individual member-country requirements.

Companies typically learn about the CE marking the hard way. Either they learn that a product they
already sell in Europe now must bear the CE marking, or they decide to expand their sales efforts
into Europe, and learn that the product must have the CE marking before it enters the EU. Either way
, the first impression is often negative. "We have the people who want to comply, the people who
want to get around doing this, and the other part who think, 'Well, if I have to do it, I guess I
have to do it, but I really don't want to do it,"' observed director of information services at QNET
LLC, Elk River, MN, a company that offers CE-marking consulting.

Why the apprehension? Mostly, it's due to a lack of knowledge about what the CE marking actually is,
how to obtain it, and what the end results will be. Companies often see only one party profiting by
the certification-Europe. They figure the EU is playing favorites and is trying to discourage
American companies from competing freely with their overseas counterparts. They are concerned with
the costs and time involved. Also, when you look at the sheer volume of regulatory literature the
European Commission has created on the CE marking, you can easily feel overwhelmed before you even
start.

One common misconception about the CE marking is that it is a quality seal. Although it may be
indirectly related to quality, the mark is actually concerned with safety-in particular, user safety
. Like the UL seal (Underwriters Laboratories, Northbrook, IL) found on household appliances and
electronics, the CE marking indicates that the product meets certain safety standards, which are out
lined in "directives," found in the Official Journal of the European Communities, a European Commission
publication. The European Commission proposes and enforces trade policy within the EU and is based
in Brussels, Belgium.