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Where to get official help

The EU's own free help layer — Your Europe how-to pages, Enterprise Europe Network, Access2Markets, SOLVIT — and the paperwork drawn: the technical file, the Declaration of Conformity, the conformity route.

The machinery documents page lists the law and its guidance. The EU also runs practical services that explain the same obligations in plain language — official, free, and written for businesses rather than lawyers. Their rank matters: they are orientation, not law. Where a portal simplifies, the instrument governs.

Service

What you get there

Your Europe — product compliance

The EU's own how-to pages, one per obligation: preparing the technical file, CE marking, the declaration of conformity and conformity assessment

Enterprise Europe Network

Advisers for small and medium companies — single-market rules, compliance and partnering support, through local partner organisations in more than fifty countries

Access2Markets

The customs gate's own lookup: duty and tax conditions, procedures and rules of origin by product code — for imports into the EU as well as exports

SOLVIT

When a public authority in another member state applies EU law incorrectly to your case, SOLVIT takes it up with that authority

flowchart LR
    Q{"What do you<br/>need?"}
    YE["YOUR EUROPE — the EU's own how-to pages:<br/>technical file · CE marking · declaration · conformity assessment"]
    EEN["ENTERPRISE EUROPE NETWORK —<br/>advisers for SMEs, through local partners"]
    A2M["ACCESS2MARKETS — tariffs, procedures,<br/>rules of origin, by product code"]
    SOL["SOLVIT — an authority in another<br/>member state misapplies EU law"]
    Q -- "understand a requirement" --> YE
    Q -- "talk to an adviser" --> EEN
    Q -- "duty, customs, origin" --> A2M
    Q -- "challenge a decision" --> SOL

One register is deliberately not in the table: NANDO, the EU's public register of notified bodies. For most machinery there is no notified body by design — the register matters only on the listed routes, and the last diagram below shows when that is, and what a paid "certificate" from anyone else is worth.

The paperwork, drawn

Each process below is described in prose on the official pages linked above; here is each one as a picture, because a diagram's short labels survive translation better than paragraphs. The CE-marking process as a whole is drawn at the top of the machinery lifecycle page — these three zoom into what it produces.

The technical file — compiled before placing, kept ten years, tested only when an authority asks:

flowchart TD
    A["Compile it BEFORE the machine is placed on the market"]
    B["What goes in: the risk assessment · the rules and requirements you identified · the standards you used · design evidence · label and instructions"]
    C["Keep it ten years from placing — and keep it current"]
    D["Market surveillance asks — any time in those ten years"]
    E["Produce it; a translation can be required"]
    A --> B --> C --> D --> E

The EU Declaration of Conformity — one signature carrying the whole file's weight, and a document that must stay true for ten years:

flowchart TD
    A["Conformity assessment completed — the evidence exists"]
    B["Draw up the declaration: who you are · which product · which rules and standards · notified body, if any"]
    C["Signed by a person with authority to bind the manufacturer"]
    D["Translated into the language(s) the country of sale requires"]
    E["Keep the latest version ten years"]
    F["Review it when the product, the law, or your details change"]
    A --> B --> C --> D --> E --> F
    F -. "any change" .-> B

The conformity route — whether anyone must check your machine before you declare, and the warning that saves real money:

flowchart TD
    A{"Does the law allow self-assessment<br/>for your machine?"}
    B["Self-assessment — you run the checks,<br/>you keep the evidence"]
    C["Notified body required — find one in<br/>NANDO, the EU's official register"]
    D["Its 4-digit number appears<br/>next to the CE marking"]
    W["⚠ A 'voluntary certificate' from an<br/>unlisted organisation proves nothing in EU law"]
    A -- "yes — most machinery" --> B
    A -- "no — listed categories" --> C
    C --> D
    C -.-> W

Published openly by the LJUSA TIDER platform. It does not replace legal advice. The services above are the EU's own; where a portal simplifies, the instrument governs.