Lighting Poles for Moldova: The EN 40 Series ANRE Names, and a 64-Degree Climate

Moldova is the only market in this series where the energy regulator itself names the EN 40 series, part by part. ANRE, the National Agency for Energy Regulation, sets out norms for the arrangement of public lighting networks, and Section 3, Article 48 of that document lists SM SR EN 40-1, 40-2, 40-3-1, 40-3-2, 40-3-3, 40-4, 40-5, 40-6 and 40-7 as the standards a public lighting installation works to. A specifier in Chișinău is not being asked to translate a European standard into a local requirement – the regulator has already done it.

Artay Lighting has cast aluminium in its own die-cast foundry in Istanbul since 1999 and exports to more than 33 countries. This page sets out what those designations are, what we could and could not confirm about them, how the free trade agreement works after the 2026 origin changes, and what a 64-degree annual temperature range does to a pole.

Which standards does a Moldovan public lighting project work to?

The designations carry the SM SR EN prefix, which itself tells you something: the adoption route runs through the Romanian version of the European standard rather than a direct translation, which is unsurprising given the shared language.

Two honest caveats. The ANRE document we read sits in the regulator’s consultation area and its approval line is still blank, so we could not confirm that it has been approved and published in the Monitorul Oficial. And the catalogue of the Institute for Standardization of Moldova was unavailable when we checked, so we could not independently confirm the edition year of each part. What is safe to say is that Moldova’s energy regulator specifies the EN 40 series by SM SR EN designation; what is not safe is to quote an edition year without checking it. ISM has been a CEN-CENELEC Affiliate since 1 January 2023, which is the direction of travel.

On the construction-products side, Government Decision No. 913/2016 approves a technical regulation setting minimum requirements for commercialising construction products. We could not establish from the primary text whether it transposes the EU Construction Products Regulation, whether it requires CE marking or a national mark, or whether lighting columns fall within its scope – so ask the contracting authority rather than assuming that a CE mark and a Declaration of Performance settle the question.

What changed for origin in January 2026?

The Türkiye-Moldova Free Trade Agreement was signed in Chișinău on 11 September 2014 and entered into force on 1 November 2016. Türkiye eliminated its duties on entry into force; Moldova did the same except for goods listed in Annex II, whose duties were phased out by 1 November 2020. That phase-out is complete, so industrial goods now move without duty in both directions.

The recent change is on origin rather than tariff. Moldova’s parliament ratified amendments applying the revised Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention rules of origin, adopted in 2025 and in force from 1 January 2026. Moldova acceded to the PEM Convention in 2015, and the Convention now has 25 contracting parties. In practice the revised rules let a manufacturer use materials of Turkish origin and benefit from cumulation across the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean area – which matters for a pole whose casting is Turkish and whose electrical components come from the EU. We did not confirm the specific proof-of-origin form from the agreement text; ask the forwarder to name it rather than assuming.

What does a 64-degree temperature range do to a pole?

Moldova’s National Climate Change Adaptation Programme, using State Hydrometeorological Service data, records an absolute maximum of +39.0 °C in 2017 and an absolute minimum of −24.6 °C in 2015, with annual average temperatures between 10.6 and 12.7 °C over 2015 to 2022. That is a spread of roughly 64 kelvin between recorded extremes – a genuinely continental climate, and a different design problem from the Mediterranean or the Gulf.

Three consequences are worth writing into a specification. Thermal movement: steel expands and contracts measurably over that range, and the joint that matters is where dissimilar materials meet – a cast aluminium base or luminaire housing on a steel shaft moves at roughly twice the rate of the steel, so the fixing detail has to accommodate it rather than fight it. Freeze-thaw at the base: water that enters a shaft in autumn and freezes in January expands, and a pole with no drain at the base is a container. Gasket and seal selection: an elastomer chosen for a temperate climate hardens near −25 °C, and a seal that has gone hard is a seal that lets water in during the spring thaw.

None of the three is expensive at the drawing stage. All three are expensive at year eight.

How are Moldovan lighting tenders published?

Through MTender at mtender.gov.md, the automated public procurement system operated by the Ministry of Finance. The interface is available in Romanian, English and Russian, and four accredited private platforms connect to it. Tender documents are in Romanian.

What can Artay supply for a Moldovan project?

Hot-dip galvanized steel poles to EN ISO 1461, up to 12 m, fabricated to the EN 40 series and verified by calculation under EN 40-3-3 – which is the part ANRE’s norms name, and the one that matters when a project has several heights and arm configurations. Alongside them, cast aluminium poles, bollards and luminaire housings from our own foundry in Başakşehir, Istanbul, in EN AC-46000 (AlSi9Cu3) alloy with chromate pre-treatment before electrostatic powder coating. Luminaires are CE marked, and manufacturing is certified to TSE under TS EN 40 for lighting columns and to ISO 9001 for quality management. Ask for the certificate together with its scope – a certificate covering luminaires does not cover columns.

We do not make high-mast poles, and we buy in extruded aluminium profile rather than extruding it ourselves, as most of this market does. What we do make from nothing is a form: a municipality can have a pole of its own, carrying its own emblem in the base. A new die is cut in our own tool shop in four to six weeks and a first delivery follows seven to nine weeks after drawing approval; repeat orders on that die ship in three weeks. Changing only height, diameter, wall thickness, arm length or RAL colour needs no die at all and carries no minimum order.

Send a drawing, a tender specification or a written requirement to info@artaylighting.com and we will return a technical drawing, a wind-load calculation and a delivery date.

Related guides

• Street lighting pole types – the four families, and how a galvanized steel pole is made.
• Lighting poles for Serbia – another continental market, with a domestic mark alongside CE.
• Lighting pole materials – galvanized steel, cast aluminium and extruded profile compared.
• What drives the cost of a lighting pole – where the money goes, and why unit prices are not published.
• OEM and private label manufacturing – tooling cost, minimum order and lead times in writing.