A European Technical Assessment – or 'ETA' for short – is a document in which the performance of a construction product is assessed in relation to its essential characteristics. This assessment is carried out by a Technical Assessment Body which has been designated by the authorities for this purpose and whose technical competence and independence have been proven.  

The ETA provides a route to CE marking for construction products that are not or not completely covered by a harmonised standard. The legal basis for the ETA procedure is the European Construction Products Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 305/2011, particularly Articles 19 and 26); the Construction Products Regulation has the rank of a European act with direct applicability in the Member States.

The European Technical Assessment (ETA) is issued on the basis of a technical specification containing the relevant assessment methods. This specification is called a European Assessment Document – or 'EAD' for short.

Like harmonised standards, EADs are considered to be harmonised technical specifications.

An ETA request can be submitted for all construction products within the meaning of the Construction Products Regulation which are not or not completely covered by a harmonised standard published in the Official Journal of the European Union.  

Construction products within the meaning of the Construction Products Regulation are products that are intended for incorporation in a permanent manner in construction works and whose performance is relevant in relation to the fulfilment of the basic requirements for construction works (cf. Article 2 of the Construction Products Regulation). 

The Basic Works Requirements (or 'BWR' for short) are described in Annex I of the Construction Products Regulation. The Construction Products Regulation distinguishes seven basic requirements:

• mechanical resistance and stability (BWR 1),
• safety in case of fire (BWR 2),
• hygiene, health and the environment (BWR 3),
• safety and accessibility in use (BWR 4),
• protection against noise (BWR 5),
• energy economy and heat retention (BWR 6) and
• sustainable use of natural resources (BWR 7).

These basic requirements result from the building provisions of the Member States.

Yes. Especially if the standardisation process has come to a halt, this can be a good path to take.

Yes. An ETA can be useful to show that the performance of the product corresponds to the requirements for a specific use in the Member States. An ETA makes it possible to match the performance to be declared to the requirements in the Member State in which the construction product is to be marketed.

Product Contact Points provide information about the requirements in the individual Member States. DIBt has been designated as the Product Contact Point for Construction (PCPC) – Germany. For further information, please refer to the PCPC website

A complete list of Product Contact Points in all EU Member States and for all product areas can be found at: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/goods/free-movement-sectors/mutual-recognition/contacts-list_de

No, in this case an ETA may not be issued.

ETAs may only be issued by Technical Assessment Bodies designated for this purpose – and for the relevant product area – by a Member State. DIBt has been designated as a Technical Assessment Body in the Construction Products Act (Bauproduktengesetz). Technical Assessment Bodies are often referred to as 'TABs'. They are to be distinguished from notified bodies which assume other tasks under the Construction Products Regulation (see question III.5).

Yes. An ETA is only issued upon request. However, if the manufacturer places a construction product for which he has obtained an ETA on the market, use of the ETA is no longer optional. The manufacturer is then obliged to draw up a declaration of performance and affix the CE marking to the product (see question I.17). 

The costs for an ETA are comparable to those for a national technical approval.

The processing time for an ETA depends on the complexity of the product and the testing requirements; usually you will be looking at a processing time of a couple of months.

If no EAD has been developed for the product area in question yet, an EAD will first be prepared (see question I.2). The Construction Products Regulation allows a processing time of 9 months maximum for this procedure.

European Technical Assessments are valid for an unlimited duration.

The ETA is valid in the EU, the Member States of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and in Switzerland and Turkey. 

Any manufacturer. However, the 'manufacturer' within the meaning of the Construction Product Regulation is not necessarily the person who physically manufactures the product. Anyone who has a construction product manufactured and marketed under his or her own name or tradename is considered to be a manufacturer under the Construction Products Regulation and thus has all the associated rights and obligations.

For more information, please refer to the FAQ Catalogue – Construction Products Regulation and Market Surveillance issued by the German market surveillance authorities and DIBt.

The ETA offers manufacturers the opportunity to market their products all across Europe with the CE marking even if the products are not or are only partially covered by a harmonised standard. The ETA can also be used if essential characteristics are not reflected in the harmonised standard or the harmonised standard does not provide an appropriate assessment method. The ETA can hence be tailored to your product.

The ETA holder is obliged to draw up a declaration of performance and affix the CE marking to his product when placing it on the market.

The ETA is also linked to a system of assessment and verification of the constancy of performance (AVCP) – still known to many manufacturers under the former name of 'attestation of conformity procedure' (please also see Chapter III).

Good and precise answers to questions related to CE marking are provided in the FAQ Catalogue – Construction Products Regulation and Market Surveillance issued by the German market surveillance authorities and DIBt.

No. The fact that an EAD has been developed for a product area at the request of a manufacturer does not impose any obligations upon other manufacturers. The EAD/ETA route to CE marking is optional (cf. question I.10). However, many manufacturers are happy to make full use of the advantages of the ETA which allows them to market their product throughout Europe.

DIBt is your direct contact for all ETA matters. However, there are other actors playing background roles in the preparation of an ETA and (if applicable) an EAD.

The other European Technical Assessment Bodies designated for the product area in question contribute their technical and building supervisory expertise to the EAD and ETA development process via the EOTA consultation procedure. EOTA is the European Organisation for Technical Assessment.

The role of the European Commission includes adopting AVCP decisions (see Chapter III) and publishing the EAD references in the Official Journal of the European Union.

DIBt liaises with the European partners on your behalf.

A glimpse into the technical specification serving as the basis for the ETA, i.e. the EAD, will give you an idea of the scope of testing. If no EAD is available for your product yet, we will develop it in coordination with you (please also see question I.2).

Please discuss the tests with us before commissioning them to avoid unnecessary tests and costs.

DIBt recognises documents from testing laboratories that are independent and possess the necessary expertise and equipment. We would be pleased to advise you in this matter.

This can only be determined on a case-by-case basis. You are welcome to include test reports from tests already carried out with your ETA request form. In general we recommend that you discuss the tests in advance with DIBt.

No. As the manufacturer, you can decide to not have certain characteristics assessed, e.g. if they are not relevant for a specific region or a specific intended use. 'NPD' (for 'No Performance Determined') must then be stated in the declaration of performance for these characteristics.

In our experience it is important that the ETA provides all relevant information. The ETA only offers the user and you an advantage if the user can immediately see from the ETA whether he or she can use your construction product in accordance with the national building requirements. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions related to this.

Yes. Additional essential characteristics can be incorporated into the EAD upon request by the manufacturer. In this way the EAD can be tailored to your construction product. We would be pleased to advise you.

The performance can be given as a description, value or in the form of performance levels or classes.

Yes. For example, the EAD may include a test method and alternatively a calculation, where this is plausible from a technical perspective. Drafters have to specify whether the two methods are equivalent and if not, which one is the reference method.

An EAD contains methods for assessing product performance as well as information about how the performance should be declared. The performance requirements for the use of the product result from the national building provisions.

Yes, in this case the ETA, and possibly the EAD, needs to be adapted.

There are a number of form- and content-related reasons for changing an EAD: for example, amendment of the AVCP decision, revision of the referenced standards and technical rules or inclusion of a new essential characteristic at the request of a manufacturer.

Information pertaining to the current version of a given EAD can be found on the EOTA website. The full-text document will be made available there as soon as the reference to the EAD has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The version of an EAD is coded into the EAD number in the two-digit middle part (e.g. EAD 330232‑01‑0601). The original version of the EAD is version 00. The need for a new EAD version may arise, for example, if a manufacturer wishes to include a new essential characteristic in his ETA for which there are no assessment methods in the EAD yet.

As soon as EOTA has adopted a new EAD version, all ETA requests will be handled on the basis of this new version. The technical content of existing ETAs, which have been issued based on earlier versions of the EAD, remains unaffected as long as there are no significant changes to the assessment methods.

EADs have a version date – and in some cases additionally one or more edition dates. Here is why:

The version date is the date when EOTA adopted a new version. As a general rule, this date is set and will no longer be changed.

If the EAD needs to be amended again before the version could be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) – for example because several ETA requests relating to the same EAD are being processed at the same time or in close succession – these amendments will be merged into the existing version. The different amendments are differentiated from each other by their own edition date.

The version that is published in the OJEU is thus a consolidated version, but still bearing the initial adoption date.

A third-party body is notified for a specific version of the EAD. As a result, the notified body must be renotified if there is a new version. As long as there are no significant changes to the requirements for the notified body, renotification will be quick and simple.

The Construction Products Regulation defines a 'kit' as a construction product that is placed on the market as a set by a single manufacturer. A kit consists of at least two separate components that need to be put together to be incorporated in the construction works.

A kit is a construction product made up of several components, whereas a construction technique describes the construction process, i.e. the assembly of (different) construction products to form structures or parts thereof.

The acronym 'AVCP' stands for 'assessment and verification of constancy of performance'. The AVCP systems replace the attestation of conformity procedures under the Construction Products Directive.

Within the framework of the AVCP systems, the performance of the construction product is assessed and factory production is monitored to ensure that the performance assessed is achieved in the long term.

The different AVCP systems are described in Annex V to the Construction Products Regulation. There are five AVCP systems. All systems at least comprise:

• the setup and application of a factory production control system by the manufacturer and
• assessment of product performance.

The systems differ according to the extent to which notified bodies (see question III.5) are to be involved in the assessment and verification of the constancy of performance.

• No notified body is necessary in system 4; all tasks are assigned to the manufacturer.
• In system 3, a notified testing laboratory assesses the product performance.
• In system 2+, a notified certification body monitors the factory production control.
• In systems 1 and 1+, a notified product certification body assesses the product performance and monitors the factory production control. In system 1+, the notified body also carries out audit-testing at regular intervals.

In the case of the ETA, the product performance has already been assessed as part of the ETA procedure and does not need to be assessed again by the manufacturer or the notified body.

No. The AVCP system is determined by the European Commission through a delegated act. The European Commission considers the importance of the product or an individual essential characteristic with respect to the fulfilment of the basic requirements for construction works. The definition applies to all relevant harmonised technical specifications.

Yes. For example, AVCP system 1 can apply to the reaction to fire of the product and system 4 to all other essential characteristics.

Notified bodies are bodies authorised to carry out tasks of an independent third-party in the process of assessment and verification of the constancy of performance of construction products. 

The Member State notifies those bodies to the European Commission and the other Member States. The notifying authority for Germany is DIBt. Further information on the notification procedure for these bodies can be found on the DIBt website.

Whether you as the manufacturer need to contract a notified body for the assessment and verification of the constancy of performance results from the AVCP system specified in the EAD or harmonised standard (see question III.2).

The notified bodies for each harmonised technical specification are listed in the European Commission's NANDO database for information purposes.

A body can only be notified formally via the NANDO list when the EAD has been incorporated into the NANDO list maintained by the European Commission.

Here is what you can do to contribute to more rapid notification: supply a consolidated version of the EAD to a competent body of your choice. (We are not authorised to do this ourselves.) The body can become accredited for the relevant activity based on this version. The body then submits the accreditation along with the application for notification. Within the framework of the notification procedure we verify whether the accreditation is suitable as proof of competence. It usually is so that the body can be notified quickly.

In certain cases this means that the declaration of performance cannot be drawn up and the CE marking cannot be affixed to the product. This applies if AVCP system 1+, 1 or 2+ is defined for the products covered by the EAD as these systems require an initial inspection of the manufacturing plant, continuing surveillance of the factory production control and certification by a notified body (see question III.2).

The notified body is notified for the EAD, and in some cases for the specific intended use, and must hence be able to verify all relevant essential characteristics. It can call upon subcontractors for this.