Amendment No 10 calls for the promotion of the application of harmonized standards.

Equivalent overall safety standards should also apply to new materials to which harmonized standards cannot be applied.

For steel structures the main harmonized standards are:

Usage of the harmonized standards is voluntary and provides presumption of conformity.

The public safety requirements are a set of essential characteristics that each product must satisfy and these characteristics are given in the product's harmonized standard.

For that reason the Commission does not think it feasible to attempt to lay down harmonized standards for special fuels at the Community level at this stage.

The end result is a single set of internationally harmonized standards that have been developed and adopted by ISO and CEN member countries.

In the European Union, pet food is regulated by the same harmonized standards across the EU, via the Feeding Stuffs Act.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain worries that a harmonized standard would mean taxes on necessities like children's clothing, which is untaxed in Britain.

In the case of steel products such as sections, bolts and fabricated steelwork the CE Marking demonstrates that the product complies with the relevant harmonized standard.

The Commission has authorized the European Standards Organization to draw up harmonized standards for packaging which can be referred to as documentation for compliance with the most important requirements of the directive.

Following the work carried out by all the parties concerned, by the Commission in the SLIM context, by the Member States and by the standardization authorities, the preparation of the harmonized standards is coming along well and tangible results are expected in 1998.

The Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedures (WLTP) define a global harmonized standard for determining the levels of pollutants and CO2 emissions, fuel or energy consumption, and electric range from light-duty vehicles (passenger cars and light commercial vans).

To facilitate conformity with these requirements, harmonized standards are developed at the European or international level by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN, CENELEC) and the International Organization for Standardization in relation to the design and manufacture of the product.