LNEC as a Technical Assessment Body (TAB)

According to the provisions of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), a product not covered or only partially covered by a harmonized European standard can also have the CE marking affixed, although in this case the marking is not mandatory.

In fact, the manufacturer of a product under these conditions can request a European Technical Assessment (ETA) and, based on the ETA issued, affix the CE marking to that product. For more information on this procedure, it is suggested to consult the page What is an ETA?

The issuance of an ETA for a construction product produced by a given manufacturer presupposes the existence of a Technical Assessment Body (TAB), designated to the European Commission for a range of products that covers the product in question.

To operate as Technical Assessment Bodies and thus be qualified to issue ETAs, the bodies must comply with the requirements established in the CPR (see Table 2 of Annex IV of the CPR), evidencing that they have adequate technical capacity to act in the scope of the technical assessment of the product ranges for which they were designated.

For its designation as a TAB, the body must submit a request to that effect to the national responsible entity (in Portugal, the Portuguese Institute for Quality, according to Decree-Law No. 130/2013 - document in Portuguese), indicating, among the product ranges listed in Table 1 of Annex IV of the CPR, those for which it intends to be designated. This designation must be communicated to the European Commission.

When designated, TABs undertake to contribute with financial and human resources to EOTA – European Organisation for Technical Assessment, where the TABs designated by the various Member States meet with a view to harmonizing and coordinating their respective activity. LNEC was indicated as the national spokesperson in EOTA.

The manufacturer of a product not covered or only partially covered by a harmonized European standard is not obliged to request the issuance of an ETA for that product (hence it is referred to that ETAs are voluntary); if it chooses not to do so, it is prevented from preparing a declaration of performance and affixing the CE marking to the product in question; however, if an ETA has been issued, the manufacturer must prepare the aforementioned declaration of performance and affix the CE marking to its product.

On the other hand, the affixing of CE marking to a given product subject to an ETA implies that the manufacturer implements the actions provided for in that ETA within the scope of the applicable assessment and verification of constancy of performance (AVCP) system (systems 1+, 1, 2+, 3 or 4).

Scope of LNEC Designation

LNEC has been qualified and is designated as a Technical Assessment Body (TAB) for all product ranges listed in Table 1 of Annex IV of the CPR, with the exception of ranges 08 (Geotextiles, geomembranes and related products), 11 (sanitary appliances) and 18 (waste water drainage systems) and 31 (which covers electrical, control and communication cables), which means that it has and demonstrates the capacity to respond to requests for the development of ETAs for the vast majority of construction products not covered or only partially covered by harmonized European standards, with emphasis on innovative products.

The scope of LNEC designation can be consulted here.

The ETAs in force issued by LNEC can be obtained here.

(Documents in portuguese)

NANDO Database

The NANDO database, created and kept updated by the European Commission, is important for the correct application of the Construction Products Regulation. In fact, this database gathers, for each of the harmonized European standards and European Assessment Documents, information relating to the Notified Bodies authorized to intervene in AVCP tasks.

The NANDO database is thus important:

• for manufacturers, as it allows knowing the technical specifications and the respective notified or designated bodies in the European Economic Area;

• for consumers, as it allows verifying whether the notified bodies mentioned in the CE marking of a product as having intervened in the respective AVCP tasks are actually in that database;

• for national market surveillance authorities, for the reasons indicated above for manufacturers and users.