CE marking, business, and European market integration

Many products – from consumer electronics to machinery to children’s toys – bear the CE Mark, the symbol of conformity to the ‘essential requirements’ of European standards. This article traces the development of the system of conformity assessment and certification, called CE Marking, from its origins in the European Community’s (EC) efforts to relaunch the Single European Market in the mid-1980s to its full implementation in the mid-1990s across the European Economic Area (EEA). It focuses in particular on the reforms made to the New Approach to Technical Harmonization and the Global Approach to Testing and Certification and examines the ways business groups responded to the creation of common systems for assessing conformité européenne. This history offers an expansive view of regional market integration and a new perspective on the dynamic between companies and regulators in the European business environment.