General Standards
Sweden is a member of the European Union and as a result complies with all EU technical legislations, as well as the EU General Product Safety Directive. It should be mentioned that apart from EU regulations, there exist other additional national requirements.
Standards organizations
The most important standardization body in Sweden is the Swedish Standards Federation. The Swedish Standards Federation is responsible for managing the registration of Swedish standards and approving the standardization bodies in Sweden. The Council includes both public and private sector entities.
At present, standardization in Sweden is performed by three accredited bodies:
- The Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) – responsible for business areas
- Informationstekniska Standardiseringen (ITS) – responsible for telecommunication issues
- Svensk Elstandard (SEK) – responsible for electronic and electro-technical standards
All these standardization agencies are working on European and global levels.
Conformity Assessment
Conformity Assessment is an obligatory point for the manufacturer in the process of conforming to EU legislation. The purpose of conformity assessment is to ensure consistency of compliance during all stages, from design to production, to facilitate acceptance of the final product. EU product legislation gives manufacturers several options regarding conformity assessment, these vary from self-certification, type examination and production quality control system, to full quality assurance system.
Product Certification
To sell products in the EU market exporters must apply for a CE marking. CE marking product legislation offers manufacturers a number of choices and requires decisions to determine which safety/health concerns need to be addressed, which conformity assessment module is best suited to the manufacturing process, and whether or not to use EU-wide harmonized standards.
Agricultural Standards
The EU member states follow the harmonized EU rules and standards regarding the food sector. Detailed information about the EU agricultural standards can be found at:
Foreign Agricultural Service : http://www.usda-eu.org
