With the CE marking, the manufacturer, distributor or EU authorized representative declares in accordance with EU Regulation 765/2008 "that the product complies with the applicable requirements set out in the Community harmonization legislation providing for its affixing." The letters "CE" initially (1985) stood for "Communauté Européenne", "Comunidad Europea", "Comunidade Europeia" and "Comunità Europea" in four of the nine official EC languages. For this reason, in the 1980s, "CE" was legally equated with "EC" in Germany and the original "CE mark" was accordingly called the "EC mark" in all national legal regulations implementing the European harmonization directives at the time. The CE marking is not a (test) "seal", but an administrative mark that expresses the free marketability of appropriately marked industrial products in the European internal market. The marking consists of the CE logo, (if applicable) in conjunction with the four-digit identification number of the notified body involved, if this body was involved in the conformity assessment.
