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European Technical is a positive technical assessment of the fitness of a product for its intended purpose to the satisfaction of the essential requirements in the Directive and can form the basis for the subsequent CE-marking of the product. European Technical Approvals are voluntary in Denmark, but in some member states they are mandatory, if an ETA-Guideline has been published for the product family. The European Technical Approval is a valuable tool for the manufacturers who wish to place their product on market in parts or the whole European market. European Technical Approvals are issued on the basis of either an ETA-Guideline or according to a special procedure relating to article 9.2 of the Directive, which can be used in case the above mentioned Guidelines are not available. An approval can be issued for fields, products and structures, which are not already or will not in the near future be covered by a harmonised European Standard. This means that European Technical Approval will cover new materials and fields where the development is too fast for standards to be appropriate - or an untraditional use of existing materials/structures. It is worth noticing that while the standards describe properties and test methods, the technical approvals is a possibility to describe properties in a certain product or structure for a certain use - on its own or in a joint construction. European Technical Approvals can, therefore, be taken as an essential contribution to the joint collection of technical specifications. As an offer to the industry as being very product specified they are directly applicable in marketing the product. When the conditions for issuing a European Technical Approval are present ETA-Danmark can issue an approval to any manufacturer both inside and outside of the EC or by his agent established in the Community. When a European Technical Approval has been issued it is valid in all EC-countries with a validity period of five years.
ETA-Guidelines are common European test and assessment conditions for a particular product family. The Guidelines address only characteristics which can be related to the six essential requirements in the Directive and only characteristics which are subject to regulations in one ore more of the member states. The Guidelines are developed on the basis of a mandate from the European Commission. Any manufacturer, who may have a wish for the development of a Guideline for his product can contact ETA-Danmark, who then – if the task is relevant for EOTA – will undertake the contact to the EOTA General Secretariat with the purpose of obtaining a mandate for the product family. Guidelines are developed in working groups organised by EOTA. The members of the working groups are representatives from the European approval bodies, who have an interest in participating in the work. Furthermore, EOTA has the possibility of inviting interested European trade organisations to participate in the working Groups as observers. Since some Guidelines make extensive use of harmonised standards, EOTA has a close working relationship with the European Standardisation Organisation, CEN. The result is that representatives from CEN are also invited to participate in the working groups as observers.
For innovative construction products a European Technical Approval can be issued on the basis of the so-called CUAP, which are test and assessment methods developed by the individual approval bodies for the specific product. This means that the manufacturer can apply for a European Technical Approval for a product, and have assessment methods developed for his specific product. This procedure is considerably shorter, but the criteria still needs to be approved by the other approval bodies tin EOTA o ensure the largest possible mutual recognition of the approval, which is subsequently issued for the product. ETA-Danmark has a through experience in the development of the criteria, and will be an active partner for the manufacturer of innovative construction products, who wish to place these on the European Market.
ETA-Danmark considers it very important that the manufacturers have a possibility to influence the work with the Guidelines. To provide this possibility for influence ETA-Danmark has established a national scheme that reflects the European by forming a number of national mirror groups in the areas where work on Guidelines is carried out. Whenever a working group for a new Guideline is being formed ETA-Danmark enquires the relevant Danish manufacturers if there is an interest among them to form a national mirror group for the benefit of the Danish manufacturers. In the national mirror groups all the documents presented in the working group are discussed in order to formulate a Danish viewpoint on the various matters. This is a unique possibility for Danish manufacturers to obtain influence in the working groups. ETA-Danmark undertakes the co-ordination and the secretariat function in the national mirror groups and in case there is a particular interest from Danish manufacturers ETA-Danmark can furthermore undertake the convenorship of the working group. Where ever ETA-Danmark participates in the European work the Danish manufacturers have a possibility for influence. However, it must be emphasised that this influence is a service that ETA-Danmark provides at a certain cost for the manufacturers depending on the number of interested parties.
Further to participating in the meetings in the national mirror groups the manufacturers have the possibility to nominate one of the members of the mirror group to participate in the working group meetings as well. The nominee can participate in the meetings as either
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