Julian Sturdy, MP for York Outer, has been asking questions in parliament (HERE) about "continued mutual recognition of Eurocodes design and civil engineering standards for UK and EU companies and other bodies after the UK has left the EU". He got the usual bland, non-committal answer from the idiot Dominic Raab so he's no wiser now anyway.
I am not sure what prompted him to ask but I assume it was a constituent or a company who questioned him about it. The EU (HERE) explain what these Eurocodes are. Essentially they are "a series of 10 European Standards, EN 1990 - EN 1999, providing a common approach for the design of buildings and other civil engineering works and construction products. They are the recommended means of giving a presumption of conformity with the basic requirements of the Construction Products Regulation for construction works and products that bear the CE Marking, as well as the preferred reference for technical specifications in public contracts".
Is Sturdy getting nervous? In February 2016 (HERE) he told us he supported Brexit so that, "We will be free from the bureaucratic shackles of the EU to trade more widely and free up business" and he was, "uncomfortable with the fact that EU directives have primacy over our common law system".
Now he wants to refasten some of the shackles and give some EU directives primacy over UK law.
He still does not understand that there is no such thing as mutual recognition of standards between the EU and any third country. We can mirror or copy or clone or replicate EU standards until we're blue in the face but the EU will never recognise them. They do allow mutual recognition of conformity assessments so they can allow a third country body to certify that products or designs meet EU standards. But this is quite a different matter and we'll almost certainly get it. But our suppliers will probably have to pay to get the certification.
He talks about "continued mutual recognition of [..] standards". But this is something a member country grants to all the other member countries - NOT to third countries outside the EU. Sturdy wants to be a third country but with all the privileges of a member. It won't happen because it can't happen.
He still does not understand that there is no such thing as mutual recognition of standards between the EU and any third country. We can mirror or copy or clone or replicate EU standards until we're blue in the face but the EU will never recognise them. They do allow mutual recognition of conformity assessments so they can allow a third country body to certify that products or designs meet EU standards. But this is quite a different matter and we'll almost certainly get it. But our suppliers will probably have to pay to get the certification.
He talks about "continued mutual recognition of [..] standards". But this is something a member country grants to all the other member countries - NOT to third countries outside the EU. Sturdy wants to be a third country but with all the privileges of a member. It won't happen because it can't happen.
