EU conformity

Since 1985, the European Union (EU) has introduced various directives based on the New Approach. The member states are obliged to implement them into national legislation.
 
In these directives, the EU has confined itself to specifying only the fundamental technical requirements regarding safety and the protection of health. As far as the details of the legal requirements are concerned, the EU has commissioned the European institutions of standardization (CENCEN
European Committee for Standardization, CENELECCENELEC
European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization and ETSIETSI
European Telecommunications Standards Institute) to draw up the necessary standards. Once standards have been published in the EU Official Journal, they are considered harmonized European standards (ENEN
European Standard).
 
switec, the Swiss information centre for technical rules, has published full documentation of each New Approach directive. All documents are kept up to date and contain the following information:

• EU directives (original text and all amendments)
• Swiss legislation (usually not available in English)
• listed institutions (accredited testing services)
• lists of standards
• comments (not available on all directives)
  
  

All documents are available either electronically or on paper.