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What are European standards and how can you use them? In some areas and for certain products, the European Commission requests one of the official standardisation organisations, (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI), to develop standards which embody and transform the general safety requirement contained in the GPSR into technical norms. The references to these standards are published in the Official Journal of the EU. These standards grant a presumption of conformity with this general safety requirement to products that were developed according to these standards for the risks covered by these standards. A list of the standards supporting the GPSR is updated regularly and is publicly available. (8) European standards, the references of which have been published in accordance with Directive 2001/95/EC, continue providing a presumption of conformity with the general safety requirement laid down in the GPSR. These European standards can be found in the catalogue of national standardisation organisations. Although these standards are not legally binding, economic operators are encouraged to use these standards when they exist. This is because compliance with these standards provides a straightforward way for economic operators to fulfil their obligation to place only safe products on the EU market. European standards indeed clearly set out the technical requirements and testing methods that help to ensure the safety of products. Since technical standards are not mandatory, manufacturers can always use other internal methods to demonstrate the safety of their products. However, those products will not benefit from a presumption of conformity with the general safety requirement, and it will be the manufacturer’s responsibility to precisely show how the identified safety risks have been tackled (eliminated or mitigated). Using European standards thus makes compliance easier for businesses regarding the aspects covered by those standards. It can also happen that there is no standard for a given product. Economic operators should then turn to other means to ensure and demonstrate that their products are safe. More practical information can be found on this in section 3.1.1.
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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.