Richard Hughes of AMDEA is chairing the group that is designing the European Commission’s guidance on the new Radio Equipment Directive (RED).

There had been some debate about whether appliances would fall within the scope of this new Directive or whether the requirements would only apply to radio modules within an appliance. The former seems more likely which has significant implications for Declarations of Conformity since RED requirements would supersede those of LVD and EMC.

It has been suggested that the harmonised standards listed under the Low Voltage and EMC Directives could not be used to demonstrate compliance with RED.

The new Directive comes into force in June 2016 so many of these issues will need to be resolved fairly speedily.