Electrical safety: low-voltage electrical equipment

European Union policy on the sale of electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits aims to ensure high levels of protection of health and safety of persons, and of domestic animals and property.

ACT

Directive 2014/35/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits.

SUMMARY

European Union policy on the sale of electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits aims to ensure high levels of protection of health and safety of persons, and of domestic animals and property.

WHAT DOES THIS DIRECTIVE DO?

The directive creates uniform conditions throughout the EU for the sale of electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits. It applies to electrical equipment designed for use with a voltage rating of between 50 and 1 000 V for alternating current and between 75 and 1 500 V for direct current.

It covers all health and safety risks, thus ensuring that electrical equipment is used safely and for the applications for which it was made.

KEY POINTS

The directive lays down the responsibilities of manufacturers, importers and distributors in regard to the sale of electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits:

• all electrical equipment on sale in the EU must bear the CE conformity marking to show it meets all the essential safety requirements of EU legislation;
• before obtaining the CE marking, the manufacturer must conduct a safety and conformity assessment, establish the technical documentation demonstrating the compliance of the equipment and issue and sign a EU declaration of conformity;
• importers must check whether manufacturers have carried out the conformity assessment procedure correctly and inform the authority monitoring safety if they consider that equipment does not conform to the essential safety requirements;
• the EU declaration of conformity and the technical documentation must be kept for 10 years;
• instructions and safety information must be written in a language easily understood by end users as determined by the national authority concerned;
• manufacturers and importers must indicate their contact details on their electrical equipment;

In addition, the directive specifies the steps to be taken by national authorities who monitor safety to identify and prevent the sale of dangerous electrical equipment in the EU.

WHEN DOES THE DIRECTIVE APPLY?

This directive applies from 20 April 2016. It repeals Directive 2006/95/EC with effect from 20 April 2016.

BACKGROUND

The directive updates EU rules for the sale of electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits. This is part of the effort to modernise EU law in a wide variety of industrial sectors in order to reduce administrative burdens and to establish clearer and more consistent rules.

Further information is available on the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs website.

last update 16.02.2015