Harmonised standards
Article 17
1. Harmonised standards shall be established by the European standardisation bodies listed in Annex I to Directive 98/34/EC on the basis of requests (hereinafter referred to as ‘mandates’) issued by the Commission in accordance with Article 6 of that Directive after having consulted the Standing Committee on Construction referred to in Article 64 of this Regulation (hereinafter referred to as ‘Standing Committee on Construction’). 2. Where stakeholders are involved in the process of developing harmonised standards pursuant to this Article, the European standardisation bodies shall ensure that the various categories of stakeholders are in all instances represented in a fair and equitable manner. 3. Harmonised standards shall provide the methods and the criteria for assessing the performance of the construction products in relation to their essential characteristics. When provided for in the relevant mandate, a harmonised standard shall refer to an intended use of products to be covered by it. Harmonised standards shall, where appropriate and without endangering the accuracy, reliability or stability of the results, provide methods less onerous than testing for assessing the performance of the construction products in relation to their essential characteristics. 4. The European standardisation bodies shall determine in harmonised standards the applicable factory production control, which shall take into account the specific conditions of the manufacturing process of the construction product concerned. The harmonised standard shall include technical details necessary for the implementation of the system of assessment and verification of constancy of performance. 5. The Commission shall assess the conformity of harmonised standards established by the European standardisation bodies with the relevant mandates. The Commission shall publish in the Official Journal of the European Union the list of references of harmonised standards which are in conformity with the relevant mandates. The following shall be indicated for each harmonised standard in the list: (a) references of superseded harmonised technical specifications, if any; (b) date of the beginning of the coexistence period; (c) date of the end of the coexistence period. The Commission shall publish any updates to that list. From the date of the beginning of the coexistence period it shall be possible to use a harmonised standard to make a declaration of performance for a construction product covered by it. National standardisation bodies are under the obligation to transpose the harmonised standards in conformity with Directive 98/34/EC. Without prejudice to Articles 36 to 38, from the date of the end of the coexistence period, the harmonised standard shall be the only means used for drawing up a declaration of performance for a construction product covered by it. At the end of the coexistence period, conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn and Member States shall terminate the validity of all conflicting national provisions.