Brussels hosted last 14-15 December the 56th meeting of CENELEC Technical Committee 210 (CLC/TC210), chaired by John Davies with Nyomee Hla-Shwe Tun as secretary.
The European Commission (EC) was represented by Dorota Papievska. Also present was the electromagnetic compatibility consultant Ronald Storrs.
The European Comission is currently blocking 14 standards on the basis of its opposition to the 80/80 rule of the International Special Committee in Radio Interference. Manufacturers operating in the worldwide market have called attention to the need for those standards. It was highlighted that the main point is not the need for the 80/80 rule, but rather the need for a rule to decide on the conformity of products that cannot be individually tested (such as mass-produced products or those that require destructive tests to determine compliance and hence cannot be tested individually). The possibility of that rule being placed in an informative annex was raised. As a result of the discussion, and given the Commission’s position, a decision was made to withdraw reference to the rule so that the standards could be approved, starting with standard EN55032.
A decision was also made to begin preparation of a standard on the statistical treatment to give mass-produced products. There is a possibility of adding to the scope of standard EN55035 other mobility management entry (MME) equipment with any radio function, beyond the current broadcast receivers. The EC representative reported the viewpoint of the Electromagnetic Compatibility working party (EMC WP) vis-à-vis the ZZ annexes, regulatory references and the famous 80/80 statistical method, which according to the rapporteur will have to be removed from the candidate standards for harmonisation. But other standards are not affected by those obstacles; inexplicably, their references have yet to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). The EC was informed of the fact, indicating that if that is truly the case it will be good news.
The matter of the statistical method will only be dealt with again at the next EMC-WP. Because wireless power transmission (WPT) is a ubiquitous technology, it will have equipment of various kilo-wattages in domestic environments. A request was made for representation at the level of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) or users; the latter, after all, will be the ones who suffer eventual interference if the limits now determined are not appropriate. The list of the potentially affected is fairly comprehensive and includes the frequencies of clock and military signals, etc. There are concerns about harmonics, a problem raised by the IARU. Because information is transmitted, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is involved. Standard EN50561-1 on electromagnetic compatibility of the electricity transmission network is again a candidate for citation in the OJEU owing to mandate M/552. Working group 11 met three times this year, the last time to consider multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology, which will be explicitly removed from parts 1, 2 and 3 and only dealt with in part 4. It will have to be made clear if the electricity transmission network receiver is or is not radio, depending on whether or not it does demodulation/detection. Standard EN50561-2 failed in the public inquiry due to insufficient information about how smart notch technology works. Aftermarket electronic equipment in vehicles with WiFi will apparently be in the scope of the Radio Equipment Directive.
The next meeting will be held this coming 15-16 May 2018 in Lisbon, following acceptance of the invitation from ANACOM per its status as sector standardisation body. The next meeting will be on 6-7 December 2018 in Brussels.
