European Directives and related standards

European Commission, in order to satisfy health and safety requirements for all European citizens, establishes European legislation, the so called European Directives. All Directives have to be incorporated in the national legislation of the member countries of EU, in a specified time period. A prerequisite for the implementation of those Directives is the existence of European standards. The preparation of standards that support the essential requirements of EU Directives is mandated to CEN and CENELEC. The member bodies of CEN and CENELEC, including ELOT, have to adopt the CEN/CENELEC standards as national. The use of so called “harmonized standards” is highly recommended but not mandatory, if the user covers the essential requirements of a certain Directive in an equivalent to the harmonized standards way.

The existing EU Directives cover the following groups of products:

Notes:
1. To read the content of the Directive please click on the Directive number.
2. To read the list of harmonized standards per Directive please click on the title of the Directive.
3. All data given in the following table are only for information. The text of the Directives may have been amended or Annexes added to by the issuing entity. For further information please refer to the EU search machine.