European Technical Assessments (ETA)

Background

The Construction Products Directive (DPC), published in 1989, created the figure of the European Technical Approval (ETA) to enable CE marking of products not covered or only partially covered by a harmonized European standard.

LNEC was the only Portuguese approval body designated and was a founding member of the European Organisation for Technical Approvals (EOTA), created in 1990, having issued several ETAs within the scope of its activity as an approval body.

The CPD has since been repealed by the Construction Products Regulation (RPC) – Regulation (EU) No. 305/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of March 9, 2011 – in force since July 1, 2013.

Legal Framework

The publication of the RPC implied some relevant changes in the process of issuing ETAs. The issuance of ETAs is currently governed by the RPC, which is directly applicable in the Member States, not requiring the publication of a national transposition diploma. However, to ensure its effective execution in the internal legal order, Decree-Law No. 130/2013 was published, which establishes the necessary provisions for the implementation, in our country, of the specific requirements entrusted to the Member States in the Regulation. This diploma aims to answer the question "who does what in Portugal?" in situations where the Regulation naturally does not define, country by country, the entities involved, and their competencies.

One of the changes that the RPC is the designation now adopted for ETAs, being designated as European Technical Assessments (ETA). The organization responsible for coordinating all this activity is the European Organisation for Technical Assessments (EOTA).

This change is not of minor importance; in fact, the European Commission has already clearly expressed the opinion that the new ETAs do not constitute an approval of a given construction product for its placing on the market but are solely an evaluation of performance.

Information on the RPC and the ETAs can be found in the RPC in brief, which includes a set of Frequently Asked Questions on the RPC.

The following are some aspects that are of particular interest to consider:

• European Technical Assessments (ETA) are the way to obtain CE marking for construction products not covered or only partially covered by a harmonized European standard, with emphasis on innovative products.
• ETAs are intended to support technological innovation and respond to specific market requests, unlike harmonized European Standards, which translate the state of knowledge and reflect the market situation on a larger scale. On the other hand, ETAs predominantly cover complex products and systems (or kits), while the set of harmonized standards primarily covers simple construction materials.
• Unlike harmonized standards, which are general technical specifications applicable to all products to which they relate regardless of their manufacturer, each ETA is an individual technical specification, relating to one or more specific products of the same type produced by a specific manufacturer.
• The manufacturer of a given innovative product or any other 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 (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.
• The affixing of CE marking to a given product subject to an ETA implies that the manufacturer implements the actions provided for in the ETA itself within the scope of the applicable assessment and verification of constancy of performance (AVCP) system (systems 1+, 1, 2+, 3 or 4).
• European Technical Assessments are issued without a validity period, and it is through the declaration of performance and the affixing of CE marking to the product that the manufacturer proves that the product placed on the market has the characteristics defined in the ETA.
• European Technical Assessment Bodies (TAB) authorized to issue ETAs must be designated by the Member States and their designation, made by product ranges, must be communicated to the European Commission.
• European Technical Assessments are issued based on European Assessment Documents (EAD) prepared within the scope of EOTA and cited in the OJEU - Official Journal of the European Union after approval by the European Commission, as is the case with harmonized European standards (see The RPC in summary); however, within a period that can extend up to 2020 at the limit, there is the possibility of issuing ETAs based on European Technical Approval Guidelines (ETAG), published under the Construction Products Directive and used as EADs under the provisions of article 66 of the RPC.

If you would like more information about ETAs, please send an email to: lnec@lnec.pt