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Europe is a prize market, easier to access than ever before. Too many U.S. exporters, especially small and medium sized enterprises, avoid it because the technical requirements for entry seem too complicated, too difficult, or too expensive. U.S. manufacturers who have successfully accessed the European market know that the time to understand the European system is well worth the effort. The European Union alone is filled with affluent consumers, approximately 370 million of them. But the European market is a large area that comprises not only the 15 countries that presently make up the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), but also the three countries that complete the European Economic Area (EEA) (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, i.e., EFTA countries except Switzerland.) In addition, there are approximately 11 other Central and Eastern European countries, such as the Czech Republic and Poland, which are candidates for future membership in the European Union. These countries are rapidly adopting European Union laws, standards, conformity assessment procedures, and the practice of CE marking.

For the exporter, therefore, Europe as a whole has become a market whose technical requirements have been greatly simplified. Before the creation of the European Union, each country imposed its own technical requirements. Different standards and conformity assessment procedures forced exporters to target one or wo countries only, or to forego exporting to Europe altogether. The unification of 15 European countries into a European Union, and the consequent harmonization of laws, standards, and conformity assessment procedures, changed all that.

The formation of the single market in Europe, one in which there was a free flow of goods, had as one of its objectives the elimination of barriers to trade between the Member State countries. Differences between national laws, standards, and conformity assessment procedures made trade between the countries difficult, contentious, and expensive. In order to eliminate these barriers, a new legislative technique and strategy was instituted. The new approach was designed to envelop, or "harmonize," the health, safety, and environmental requirements of 15 Member States into one European-wide legislative package. The result of this new approach to lawmaking, or "harmonization," was a new set of laws that emanated from the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, the capital of the European Union. They were called the New Approach Directives. In every case, one law replaced fifteen. Member States were required to adopt the new harmonized laws.

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