All amendments and improvements to the European Standards for certain products of natural stone have been obligatory since September 2006. Joachim Deppisch, author of the CE brochure ¡°Natural stone products: The new standards¡±, explains what companies producing natural stone must know.

STEIN: Mr Deppisch, who actually initiates the European Standards?

Joachim Deppisch: The European Standards (EN) are standards ratified by one of the three European Committees for Standardization CEN, CENELEC or ETSI. CEN (Comit¨¦ Europ¨¦en de Normalisation) is the officially recognized standards organization for all sectors except electrical engineering and telecommunications, i.e. also for construction products of natural stone. CEN was appointed to draw up these EN standards by the EU Commission on the basis of the Construction Products Directive. The EN standards were created by a standardization process, as there were extensive requirements in terms of product usability in the European countries.

STEIN: And how did the decision on standardization of natural stone products come about?

Joachim Deppisch: The legislative basis for drawing up the standards resulted from the Construction Products Directive. The task of this directive is to ensure essential requirements for buildings and to abolish technical trade barriers within the EU without lowering the level of protection in the member states. The Construction Products Directive defines a concept for the general conditions under which the construction products are usable and may be offered on the market in Europe. The visual proof of usability is provided by the CE marking.
The standardization bodies specifically responsible for the natural stone segment then considered how Europe could obtain a standard safety level for the various construction products of natural stone and which parameters describe the usability of these products. If the manufacturer states these parameters, the customer buying a natural stone product receives the necessary information about his products, which he can then compare with information about other products.

STEIN: Why did you decide to write a brochure on this subject?

Joachim Deppisch: There was no publication available at the time that comprehensively described the current facts on compulsory marking of natural stone products in Europe. The major factor for the decision was that especially our German companies should receive all the information on the ¡°European Standard ¨C CE marking¡± in compressed form. I am very interested in local stones in Germany, and I think CE marking offers a great advantage here, as the quality and usability of these stones is easily fully traceable and many years of extensive experience already exists in this respect. It was therefore particularly important for me to publish a brochure on the market that contained all the important facts and figures for CE marking in compact form. This brochure offers manufacturers, stonemasons, traders and everyone concerned with stone products everything they need to know about ¡°CE marking¡±.

You can order the brochure ¡°CE ¨C Natural stone products: The new standards¡± in the Callwey Verlag¡¯s online shop.