On March 29, 2014, the European Commission published the recasts of eight CE marking directives. These directives have new reference numbers and are aligned with the rules and responsibilities for CE marking that were published earlier in the NLF’s defining documentDecision 768/2008/EU.
These Directives came into force on 20th of April 2016 as part of an ongoing alignment of all the CE marking directives.
The intention of this New Legislative Framework (NLF) is to:
provide better overall coherence and consistency across the range of directives;
improve market surveillance rules to provide better protection for consumers and professionals from unsafe goods;
clarify the notification process;
improve the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies and the conformity assessment procedures (modules);
clarify the meaning of the CE mark and enhance its credibility
clarify the obligations of importers and distributors where the manufacturer of the CE marked product is based outside Europe.
The package of eight directives that came into force on 20th April 2016 are:
The Civil Explosives Directive 2014/28/EU
The Simple Pressure Vessels Directive 2014/29/EU
The Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive 2014/30/EU
The Non-automatic Weighing Instruments Directive 2014/31/EU
The Measuring Instruments Directive 2014/32/EU
The Lifts Directive 2014/33/EU
The ATEX Directive 2014/34/EU
The Low Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU
The following have been previously aligned with the NLF:
The Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EU
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment 2011/65/EU
Construction Products Regulation 305/2011/EU
The Pyrotechnic Articles Directive 2013/29/EU
The Recreational Craft Directive 2013/53/EU
The following three realigned directives will come into force soon:
The Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU
The Pressure Equipment Directive 2014/68/EU
The Marine Equipment Directive 2014/90/EU
The majority of the differences introduced by the updated directives are concerned with implementing the principles of the NLF, but the legislators also took the opportunity to update some of the technical details of the affected directives. Generally, these changes are intended as clarifications and there are no fundamental changes to the scope or requirements of the directives.
