On March 31st 2016, the European Commission published new Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) legislation as Regulation (EU) 2016/425. This will replace the current PPE Directive 89/686/EEC which has required all PPE placed on the European market since 30th June 1995 to be CE marked.
During the last 22 years, hundreds of thousands of models of PPE have gone through the certification process under the current PPE Directive and millions of individual products have subsequently been CE marked and sold all across Europe.
However, to continue placing these products on the market they will have to be certified to the new Regulation and after 21st April 2019 it will be illegal to place on the market any item of PPE that has not been certified to the new Regulation.
The scale of this recertification task is potentially enormous and will require careful planning and managing to ensure a smooth transition and to minimize any disturbance to the market.
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