CE marking is the manufacturer’s declaration that a product meets the requirements of all EU directives and regulations that apply to it, allowing it to be placed on the market anywhere in the European Economic Area. The letters stand for Conformité Européenne. It is not a quality mark, and it is not a certificate handed out by a government. It is the manufacturer taking legal responsibility for conformity, backed by a technical file and a signed EU Declaration of Conformity.
How much outside help is needed depends on the risk of the product. For low-risk products the manufacturer can self-assess and affix the mark on its own authority. For higher-risk products the relevant directive requires a notified body to perform part of the conformity assessment before the mark can be applied. In functional safety this matters for regimes like the EU Machinery Directive and the ATEX directive, where safety-related equipment and protective systems often need notified body involvement before they can legally carry the CE mark.
Key Points
- CE marking is a self-declaration of conformity with all applicable EU directives, not a third-party quality stamp.
- It is mandatory for products covered by the relevant directives before they can be sold in the European Economic Area.
- Low-risk products allow self-assessment; higher-risk products require a notified body to assess conformity first.
- Behind every mark sits a technical file and a signed EU Declaration of Conformity that the manufacturer must be able to produce.
- The official CE mark follows fixed letter proportions set in EU law; watch for a similar-looking imitation, sometimes called a “China Export” logo, whose letters sit closer together and which is not a valid EU conformity mark.
- CE marking concerns legal access to the EU market, not IEC 61508 functional safety certification. A device can be SIL-certified to IEC 61508 by a certification body and separately carry a CE mark, and neither one implies the other.
Example
A safety relay sold into the EU under the EU Machinery Directive carries the CE mark only after its manufacturer compiles a technical file, has a notified body assess the safety function where required, and signs an EU Declaration of Conformity. The small CE logo on the housing is the visible shorthand for that whole package.
See Also: notified body, conformity assessment, EU machinery directive, UKCA marking
Cited Sources
- Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 and Decision No 768/2008/EC, the EU framework for the marketing and accreditation of products
- European Commission — CE marking
Deep dive: For a much more in-depth treatment, see Who Certifies Functional Safety Equipment, and Who Accepts It.