The Council Directive 2014/90/EU pertains to Marine Equipments (referred to as the “MED”). Materials and equipment to be installed on board ships registered in the EU countries and EFTA countries are required to meet the requirements of the MED. Wheel marked equipments are also accepted by several other Flag Administrations. This enables free movement of products in EU and many other countries.

COMMISSION DIRECTIVE (EU) 2015/559 provides the list of products covered by MED and the standards/regulations that the equipment must comply. MED requires approval of such products to be carried out by independent organizations (third party) know as Notified Body, which undertakes the assessment of the equipment on behalf of the EU Member States.

Equipments complying with MED requirements and intended to be used on board ships can be affixed with the “Wheel Mark” together with the unique ID number of the certifying Notified Body and are to be accompanied by an EC Declaration of Conformity issued by the respective manufacturers.

The conformity is generally demonstrated in two stages –

• Product design review and testing as per applicable standard
• Assessment of Quality systems

The following conformity assessment procedures (MED) are described in MED:

• Module B – EC Type Examination
• Module D ‐ Production Quality Assurance
• Module E ‐ Product Quality Assurance
• Module F ‐ Product verification
• Module G ‐ Unit verification