The broader frame for our work

The needs we try to meet-

"One product, one test, accepted everywhere"

That is the goal of many suppliers. In Europe, the goal is often a reality, and our services try to show when, where and how the opportunity can be grasped.

The world has not always been like that, and much of it still isn't. Standards and testing requirements can vary so much between countries that they are often called Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). Even in Europe, some see the new generation of harmonised standards and tests used in one-stop approval as hard to master. Our mission is to help everybody affected by those barriers to set up the right procedures and processes to deal with them.

That includes:

• manufacturers who need to incorporate them into their processes.
  
• distributors who need to know that the products they sell meet mandatory requirements and customer expectations.
  
• third-party testing and certification bodies who need to offer the right services at the right time, at the right price, and with the most up-to-date information, to give independent assurance that standards are respected.
  
• government organisations responsible for developing technical regulation or for liberalising trade, who need to balance the needs for free trade and efficient economic management against the need to provide adequate protection to consumers, workers, and the environment.

The size of the European Union market makes it particularly attractive to business to penetrate it efficiently: already representing more than 25% of the global economy, it has 350 million people, and more countries will join over the next few years.

We also try to explain how European requirements fit with global systems. Often, there is a link between European standards and global standards. Sometimes, the EU has agreements with non-European countries to eliminate multiple testing, to make a single test valid both in Europe and elsewhere. For European operators, our services offer guidance on where and when EU systems will be acceptable outside, and for non-European operators, they offer guidance on when systems used elsewhere in the world will be accepted in Europe.

Our services concentrate on two main issues:

• how EU standards and testing systems work in practice B tips on how to master them most efficiently, and guidance on pitfalls, traps, and uncertainties. Our coverage includes current systems and major systems while they are being planned.
• where to get the detailed operating data fast, efficiently, and at minimum cost. One of our guiding principles in the Internet age is that, if information is available free-of-charge, our job is to point our clients to it, and not to charge for it ourselves.