Enforcement of CE marking

The organization which monitors proper implementation of CE marking within the Netherlands, is the Ministry of Environment. Europe designated the Ministry of Environment to implement CE directives properly and to ensure that this is done correctly in the Netherlands.

For example, a testing institute intending to certificate according to the product standard, needs to do his request at the Ministry of Environment. The Ministry of Environment asks permission at Europe (after a thorough assessment of the applicant) and thus gets the institute accreditation.

Also monitoring the implementation of the CE rules must be done by the Ministry of Environment. A company that suffers from unfair competition from non-CE approved products will have to make this noticeable to the Ministry of Environment. Inspectors from the Ministry can then summon the user of the non CE-approved products with immediate effect, without notice.

This means for example, that with an object with an evacuation system there won’t be a transition situation to go into conclave with the supplier about the delivery of proper equipment. Without certification the evacuation system can not and should not be used, so there is a risk that the building no longer can be entered and the seal on the door can only be broken after the application of products with a CE mark.

It can come this far, and it’s just waiting for the first incident.