Self-certification

CEN, the European Committee for Standardisation, is behind schedule to get between 400 and 500 harmonised product standards out by the end of 2004. The European Commission is therefore devising a way for manufacturers to CE mark their own products.With just under 100 products completed to date, and only five in the past nine months, the Commission is reportedly very unhappy with CEN.The Construction Products Association's (CPA) industry affairs director John Tebbit told CJ: "The Commission pays about £11m a year to CEN. I'm also told that each product standard is costing 1m, of which industry is paying 90%. So the Commission has had enough and in the revision to the Construction Products Directive (CPD), it will suggest a way for manufacturers to CE mark directly without having to go through standards."The CPD revision is in the early consultation stage, so by the time the Commission has put its idea forward and gone through all the necessary channels, it is unlikely to be agreed until late 2005/early 2006."The Commission is unlikely to back down on this. It is a fact that the CPD is the only one of the new approach directives where following a standard is mandatory," said Tebbit. "I don't see how you can argue that construction is so different that it must have mandatory standards, because there are directives for lifts and active implantable medical devices that are far more life-threatening, yet don't have standards. "I think the Commission's idea is therefore a very good way of getting round the ineptitude of CEN."When asked if manufacturers would benefit from CE marking their own products, Tebbit said: "I think if manufacturers were told they could CE mark their products using the European test methods, and they put this information on the product, it could work well. But we don't yet know how it will work, so it is hard to say what the benefits will be."He feels reaction would vary from sector to sector. "Some sectors would like the idea of CE marking their own products, but there'll also be a lot of people against it. "What is clear is that we cannot have CE marking being mandatory and only having it through standards because it will fossilise the manufacturers. There must be another way of doing CE marking," he said.