The vast majority of construction products which fall under the scope of the Construction Products Directive, and which therefore (in most cases) need to bear the CE marking symbol, will be covered by harmonised European Standards produced by CEN (the European Standards Organisation).

Standardisation is the process by which product standards and other supporting standards (e.g. test method standards) are drafted within CEN Technical Committees. Technical Committees and their Working Groups are made up of representatives from manufacturers, Trade Associations, testing/certification bodies, users/specifiers and so on, and operate democratically and openly in arriving at the final European Standard.

However, the standardisation process may be less clear to people not directly involved in it. In addition, there are many rules which govern how standards may be written (for example, the wording of a standard is not allowed to effectively 'remove' products from the market if these products are currently legally placed on the market), and these rules are not always known (or followed) even by people directly involved in standardisation.

APSR Associates are able to answer most questions relating to the whole process of standardisation, both to those outside the process and to those involved in it. We can give general advice (for example on how to draft good standards and on the consequences of standards being published) and we can also provide specific advice to individual manufacturers, Trade Association, etc. Contact us via our Consultancy, Seminars or Representation Services.