The CE marking is mandatory for certain products and is dictated by administrative regulations. In this way, Royal Decree 1644/2008, of 10 October, establishes the requirements relating to the placing on the market and putting into service of machines to ensure their safety and their free movement, in accordance with the obligations laid down in Directive 2006/42/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 on machinery and amending Directive 95/16/CE.
For the purposes of this Royal Decree, machinery means a set of parts or organs joined together, at least one of which must be mobile and, where appropriate, of control devices, control circuits and power circuits, or others, jointly and severally associated for a particular application, in particular for the processing, processing, movement and conditioning of a material. In turn, it is laid down that machinery whose only source of energy is human force, which is used directly, is excluded from the scope of application, unless it is a machine used for lifting loads.
In this way, the existing definition in Directive 2006/42/CE clearly rules out that a portable ladder can be considered as a machine unless it is motorized. The fact that one or more sections of the ladder can be moved manually does not imply the lifting of loads with human force, and therefore does not change the above conclusion.
The CE marking affixed to products not subject to the Directive is deemed to be improper marking in accordance with Article 17 of Directive 2006/42/CE. Regulation (CE) 765/2008 prohibits the affixing of the CE marking to products for which its use is not covered by community harmonization legislation.
For ladders, there is the European Standard EN 131, a european standard that establishes safety and quality requirements. This standard defines the materials, dimensions and minimum carrying capacity of ladders for domestic and professional use to ensure the safety of users. The EN 131 has been developed by the European Standardization Committee CEN/CENELEC, so all portable ladders sold in the European market must meet these quality standards.
The EN 131 marking shall only appear on the ladder label if and only if all the requirements of the standard applicable to this type of ladder are met. From the Association of Portable Ladder Manufacturers (AFESPO), with the aim of highlighting the dangers posed by the use of ladders without their corresponding certification, explain why we should be wary of and reject ladders bearing the CE marking.
