by David M. Walker
This article discusses some of the issues for US manufacturers of metrology equipment when dealing with European Union funded programs. It is often the case that ‘EU’ funding is available only for products whose origin is deemed to be from one of the member states. The rules applying to origin and bidder status are strict but do accommodate the scenario of product produced over more than one country, such as where a product’s final, substantial, processing is performed within the EU but could be certified to have origin in one of the member states. Equipment for an expanding, or new, National Measurement Institute (NMI) is inevitably both highly specialized and produced by a very small number of suppliers therefore tender authorities, specifiers and end users are concerned as to the legitimacy of origin declarations within EU regulations.
