The European Standard EN 15129

In this chapter, the European Standard on anti-seismic devices is introduced and commented on. First, the mechanism for preparing European regulations is explained, in which all member states of the European community can participate, plus neighboring states that joined the European Standards Committee. This chapter also explains how experts from different organizations (universities, public administrations, manufacturers) can be appointed by the convenor of the technical committee to prepare parts of the standard. It is then explained how the CE marking is applied and how this guarantees the quality of the products and allows their free circulation within the European community and neighboring countries. Then the individual chapters are commented on, highlighting the main innovative aspects of the standard such as the performance orientation, the re-centering requirements of the isolators, the introduction of reliability factors to warrant the performance of the anti-seismic devices when the design earthquake is exceeded, and many other peculiar aspects.