Chapter 12 European Standards for products

European Standards are one of the basic building blocks ensuring that products can be put on sale all over Europe, all meeting the same basic requirements. In the highways sector, these ‘essential requirements’ are decided upon by the European Commission's Standing Committee for Construction who then give a mandate to the Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN) to produce the test methods, appropriate minimum levels or classes of performance and underpinning Factory Production Control (FPC). CEN sets up a series of technical committees to do this work, involving experts representing national standardisation bodies. Use of these standards permits products to be manufactured and put on the market Europewide with a CE mark. Most standards for construction products for highways are published but a few are yet to be fully implemented. The standards are for products as manufactured; therefore they are not involved with installation, which can be covered by British Standards or by the Highway Authorities Product Approval Scheme (HAPAS) operated by British Board of Agrément (BBA). Because of its system of procurement and control of highway contracts, the UK also augments the FPC within its specifications, by requiring BS EN ISO 9001 Quality Assurance and compliance with the National Highway Sector Scheme (NHSS) for both the product itself and its installation. It is compulsory for public sector organisations to use products complying with a European Standard where one exists.