The REDCA meeting was held last 22-23 May in Warsaw, attended by about 85 participants representing administrations, notified bodies (NBs), standardisation bodies and observers. The European Commission was represented by Dorota Papiewska.
The following issues stand out among the topics considered at the gathering:
- Four countries have yet to transpose Directive 2014/53/EU of 16 April, applicable to radio equipment (RED);
- The RED Guide was published last 19 May. Work on some controversial aspects to include in the guide, such as ‘combined equipment’ is nearing completion;
- At present 58 bodies are notified in the scope of the RED Directive and only a few have not yet applied to join REDCA;
- The terms of the chair and the secretary, who do not plan to continue in those posts, end at the end of 2017. The attending participants were asked to put forward candidates (for chair and secretary) by the end of July 2017. If needed, the respective voting could even be held in August. Note that according to the Association’s rules the chair should be a notified body based in the European Union;
- Regarding the matter of antennas covered by the RED Directive, the RED Guide states that antennas can be subdivided into two types: ‘active’ and ‘passive’. Active antennas are supplied with one or more active electronic components (such as diodes, transistors, etc) that interact with the radio frequency signal. All other antennas are generally considered to be passive. Taking into account the radio equipment definition in article 2 of the directive, passive antennas are not covered by the RED if marketed as a single commercial unit. All active antennas are within the RED scope.
The next meeting will be held in Lisbon on 8-9 November 2017.
