The R&TTE Directive

The European Radio equipment and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (R&TTE) Directive (1999/5/EC) was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities on 7 April 1999. It covers all radio equipment and all equipment intended to be connected to public telecommunications networks.

A 'New Approach' Directive

The R&TTE Directive is a 'New Approach' Directive.

The 'New Approach' is, in fact, not that new as it was introduced in the mid-1980s but continues to be a key policy for European regulation. It establishes a regulatory framework for placing goods and services on the European market, free movement of those goods and services, and their putting into service. Significantly, it relies heavily on standardization.

The principles of the New Approach are:

  • Legislative harmonization is limited to essential requirements that products placed on the Community market must meet in order to benefit from free movement within the Community
  • The technical specifications of products meeting the essential requirements set out in the directives are laid down in Harmonized Standards
  • Application of harmonized or other standards remains voluntary, and the manufacturer may always apply other technical specifications to meet the requirements
  • Products manufactured in compliance with Harmonized Standards benefit from a presumption of conformity with the corresponding essential requirements.

Since there are different Directives for different market sectors, the essential requirements vary from one Directive to another. However, the essential requirements tend to be expressed in very general terms. The New Approach relies on the related Harmonized Standards to provide the technical detail and thus offer a guaranteed level of protection with regard to the essential requirements. It also relies on the national authorities carry out their responsibilities for the protection of safety and other interests covered by a Directive.

Harmonized Standards (HS) are a particular form of European Standard (EN) and can only be produced by the three recognized European Standards Organizations (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI). The work is consensus based and the Harmonized Standards are adopted through a public approval process. Their application is voluntary.

Harmonized Standards are distinct from other ENs in that:

  • They are produced under a formally issued standardization mandate through the European Commission's '98/34/EC procedure'
  • The standards take due account of the essential requirements stated in the relevant Directive
  • When the standard has been adopted, a reference to it is placed in the Official Journal of the European Communities with an indication of the Directive for which the presumption of conformity should apply.

Using the R&TTE Directive

As a New Approach Directive, the R&TTE Directive relies for its operation on Harmonized Standards developed by the recognized European Standards Organizations. These Harmonized Standards define technical characteristics which can be used to meet the essential requirements of the Directive, which are:

  • protection of health and safety of the user and any other person, based on the protection requirements of the Low Voltage Directive 73/23/EEC (article 3.1a of the Directive)
  • the essential requirements of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (article 3.1b)
  • effective use of the radio spectrum/orbital resource so as to avoid harmful interference (article 3.2).

The Commission may invoke certain other requirements for particular classes of equipment (article 3.3).

Equipment manufactured in accordance with a Harmonized Standard may be placed on the market and put into service within the European Union (certain restrictions apply in the case of radio equipment which uses frequencies whose use is not harmonized in the European Union). Network operators may not refuse to connect compliant equipment on technical grounds.

Spectrum management remains a national matter. Authorities in the Member States are allowed to regulate radio interfaces, but are required to publish their regulations (article 4.1).

It is not a requirement that terminal equipment should interwork correctly with the network, although the Commission may choose to invoke this requirement for certain equipment classes (article 3.3a). However network operators are obliged to publish interface specifications in sufficient detail to permit the design of terminals capable of using all services provided through the interface (article 4.2).

The Commission may also invoke requirements related to avoidance of harm to the network (article 3.3b), protection of personal data and privacy (article 3.3c), avoidance of fraud (article 3.3d), ensuring access to emergency services (article 3.3e) and to facilitate use by users with a disability (article 3.3f).

At present, the only additional requirements that have been announced relate to article 3.3e (ensuring access to emergency services) for:

  • Ships using inland waterways (EC Decision 2000/637/EC)
  • Marine distress & safety equipment (EC Decision 2004/71/EC)
  • Marine Identification System (EC Decision 2005/53/EC)
  • COSPAS-SARSAT locator beacons (EC Decision 2005/631/EC)
  • Avalanche beacons (EC Decision 2001/148/EC).

The R&TTE Directive Q&A page contains answers to questions frequently received by ETSI concerning the application of the R&TTE Directive. A guide to the R&TTE Directive 1999/5/EC is also available.

You can find details of the standardization work performed under the current New Approach Directives by the three ESOs at: http://www.newapproach.org/. This site also contains the Directives and the concepts behind the system.