{"id":1091,"date":"2016-12-19T15:22:21","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T15:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/cwst\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2017-03-03T18:05:31","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T18:05:31","slug":"standard-not-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/cwst\/standard-not-standard\/","title":{"rendered":"When is a standard not a standard?"},"content":{"rendered":"

…or why you should not buy EN 14081-1:2016.<\/p>\n

As we have discussed before (here<\/a> and here<\/a>), Harmonized Standards have a special status in that they are linked to EU legislation.<\/p>\n

The European Standards (ENs) are created by one of the three European Standardization Organizations (e.g CEN,\u00a0European Committee for Standardization<\/a>) – which are separate from the EU – and then published by National Standards Bodies (such as the British Standards Institute<\/a>). \u00a0\u00a0All standards are, in principle, voluntary \u2013 but they may be a way of demonstrating compliance with requirements that are not voluntary (1).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Harmonised Standards (such as\u00a0EN 14081<\/a>\u00a0for structural timber) are different from regular ENs in the sense that they have a different trigger (EU legislation – in this case the\u00a0Construction Products Regulation<\/a>) and an extra acceptance procedure that results in them being cited in the Official Journal of the European Union<\/a>\u00a0(OJEU).<\/p>\n

When a new EN is published, member National Standards Bodies are obliged to publish it and withdraw the previous version – but until that new version is cited in the\u00a0Official Journal of the European Union<\/a>\u00a0it does not have proper status as a harmonized Standard. \u00a0Until recently this has gone relatively smoothly – but something clearly went wrong, because we currently have some 80 or so Harmonized \u00a0Standards that are not yet cited\u00a0in the OJEU – and EN 14081:2016 is one of them.<\/p>\n

What does this mean? \u00a0Well it means (we think) that\u00a0EN 14081:2016 cannot yet be used as the Harmonized Standard\u00a0and structural timber should be produced according to the previous version, EN 14081:2005+A1:2011. \u00a0British Standards Institute withdrew that<\/a> on 31 May 2016.<\/p>\n

The reasons why\u00a0EN 14081:2016 is not yet cited are currently unclear – but the CEN committee concerned (TC124 WG2) hopes that they are not significant and can be addressed with an amendment (2). \u00a0In summary: do not buy EN 14081:2016 – wait until there is an amended version that can actually be used<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There also seems to be a problem with EN 338:2016<\/a>, which introduced some new strength classes (grades). \u00a0In other standards, the classes are things that must be achieved – but for structural timber they are just a convenient way of stating performance<\/a>. EN 338 is not, itself, a Harmonized Standard, but it is referenced by EN 14081, which is. \u00a0The problem seems to be that new classes appear to the EC to be restrictions (and hence a barrier to trade) when in fact they actually make trade easier. \u00a0It appears as though a Delegated Act is required to create new classes – although this should really only be the case where those classes are regulatory requirements…because otherwise we seem to put at risk special grades (like TR26<\/a>) and user defined grades…and that\u00a0would<\/em>\u00a0result in a barrier to trade. \u00a0We will see what happens next year…<\/p>\n

And what else? \u00a0Well, earlier this year there was a\u00a0case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (James Elliott Construction Ltd v Irish Asphalt Limited) for a dispute originating in 2005. \u00a0We will leave understanding that as “an exercise for the reader” (3) but it seems to lead towards the conclusion that since Harmonized Standards are connected to European law, they are not\u00a0purely private acts – and that since they have the effect of\u00a0granting the right to free movement to companies complying with standards they can be regarded as legal acts. This calls into doubt the idea that standards (even Harmonized Standards) are voluntary…and makes us wonder if it is OK that you need to buy standards if they are themselves, somehow part of law.<\/p>\n

1) More specifically,\u00a0European law sets the \u201cessential requirements\u201d which manufacturers have to meet (whether they are using the harmonized standards or not) to ensure free circulation of their products on the Single Market. \u00a0And (in this case) CEN develops\u00a0voluntary standards that give technical solutions, accepted by the relevant industry, to ensure compliance with those essential requirements.<\/p>\n

2) The intention is to have a meeting with representatives of the European Commission, CEN and TC124 WG2 to find out what needs to be done. No date is yet fixed.<\/p>\n

3) In other words, too complicated for us to interpret.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…or why you should not buy EN 14081-1:2016. As we have discussed before (here and here), Harmonized Standards have a special status in that they […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9,68,19,20,56,67],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-standards","tag-en14081","tag-en338","tag-machine-grading","tag-strength-grading","tag-timber-grading","tag-visual-grading"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen is a standard not a standard? - Centre for Wood Science & Technology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/cwst\/standard-not-standard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When is a standard not a standard? - Centre for Wood Science & Technology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"…or why you should not buy EN 14081-1:2016. 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