According to recent reports by foreign media, although the United States and China are global economic powers, the economic strength of the European Union should not be underestimated, and it is no wonder that start-ups are looking for opportunities to sell products to EU countries.

According to the European Commission, the EU countries have more than 500 million consumers, a GDP per capita of 25,000 euros, it has 28 member states, and accounts for 16% of the world's exports. It is the world's largest export market, larger than China, and it is also a large partner of more than 80 countries around the world.

The EU market is tempting for startups and small businesses looking for new markets for their products, but it also has a series of regulations that require a regulatory authority to license a product before it can legally sell it in Europe, which involves a lengthy and cumbersome series of steps to obtain EU CE marking.

If you want to sell in this profitable market, you need to ask yourself these 5 questions before you make a sale:

1. What EU directives and standards does the product need to comply with?

The first step is to decide that the product needs to comply with European directives or standards. Check the European Commission's website for 25 product categories, most of which have EU-specific directives and requirements. As a result, enterprise products need to comply with these requirements, and sometimes they need to be recalibrated to meet the requirements.

Some categories do not have special directives in the EU, but these products generally comply with international standards, such as: In this case, the business needs to have the right certificates.

2. What are the requirements of the product?

The next step is to study in depth and decide on the specific requirements of the directive or standard. You need to double-check the instructions and standard text to see if the product meets the standard. If your business lacks in-house technical staff, you may need to bring in an external consultant to help with this complex process.

3. Does the product need to be tested?

In most cases, the answer is yes, and whether internal testing or external testing is required depends on what the product is.

The directive will clearly indicate whether the product needs to be declared to conform to the standard and, if so, if so, to be tested. The directive should also list all the conformity requirements that the product must meet for testing.

4. Do I need to attach technical documents?

Products wishing to obtain an EU declaration of conformity need to be accompanied by detailed technical documentation showing that the product design complies with the standard and complies with the standards of the European Commission.

Complete technical documentation, including any product design and certification-related data, including source code, schematics, technical images, independent test results, reviews, and descriptions. Like all important documents, a company's technical documentation needs to be saved and protected from tampering.

5. What is the format of the final EU declaration of conformity?

The company needs to ensure that the product's EU declaration of conformity is properly formatted and contains all the required information. EU regulators strictly exclude products that do not meet the standards.

If you don't have in-house technical staff or legal and regulatory experts, it's a more reliable way to learn from most startups and small businesses that use existing templates to fill out the relevant information. But beware, the EU complies