What is CE marking and where does it find its origin?

CE marking is a "passport" enabling a product to be placed on the market in any Member State. CE marking does not indicate that a product was made in the EEA, but merely states that the product is assessed before being placed on the market and thus meets the EU legislative requirements.
Only those product categories subject to specific directives that provide for the CE marking are required to be CE marked. For construction products, the Construction Product Directive (CPD) and the more recent Construction Products Regulation (CPR) set the foundation for CE marking and ensure that reliable information can be found on construction products in relation to their performances.

The latter is achieved by providing a “common technical language", offering uniform assessment methods of the performance of construction products. Throughout the years, these methods have been compiled in harmonised European standards (hEN) and European Assessment Documents (EAD). This common technical language is to be applied by

- the manufacturers when declaring the performance of their products,
- the authorities of Member States when specifying requirements for them,
- their users (architects, engineers, constructors…) when choosing the products most suitable for their intended use in construction works.