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Last edited 16 Sep 2022

Collaboration, standards and their acronyms explained

[edit] Standards and acronyms

A technical standard is a document that is produced and approved by a body and established by consensus, it provides uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes, and practices.

It is in the development of standards, that standards organisations come in. Within these organisations, technical committees are the key bodies responsible for the development of standards and will typically comprise experts in a specific field. Members of a committee should be varied so there is diverse input to represent different industries, professions, the government, trade unions and any other relevant stakeholders. The aim of the committee is to gain a formal consensus on the content of a standard.

Standards are voluntary and not mandated in law but, for example with respect to the Machinery Directive, the use of harmonised standards can be used to presume conformity to the Directive (which is the law). There are instances when a standard does become mandatory but this is when they are adopted by regulators as legal requirements.

Unfortunately, the world of standardisation is full of acronyms and in order to talk about them, they need to be used. From CENELEC to a DPC (Draft for Public Comment) acronym's can be confusing, here the author has described in some detail key acronyms relating to standards but you can also visit the Designing Buildings section Construction industry acronyms for further help.

[edit] National Standards Body

In the United Kingdom the national standards body is the British Standards Institution (BSI). As well as producing technical standards, it also supplies certification and standards-related services to businesses. The BSI produces British standards, but it is also responsible for the UK publication of international and European standards in English, for example, an ISO standard that has been adopted by CEN and hence BSI - more about this later.

Originally founded as the “Engineering Standards Committee” in 1901, the BSI was the world’s first national standards body. In 1918, it became the British Engineering Standards Association and then adopted the name British Standards Institution in 1931 after receiving a Royal Charter in 1929. A revision of the Charter in 1998 enabled the organisation to acquire other businesses and diversify, and so the trading name was changed to BSI Group.

BSI's best known product in the UK is the Kitemark, a quality mark first used in 1903. This is a product and service quality trade mark and is mostly used to identify products where safety is paramount, like protective shoes and smoke alarms etc. It can also be applied to a range of services, such as for example, gas installation or BIM.

[edit] European Committees for Standardisation

There are three bodies that are officially recognised by the European Union and by the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) as being responsible for developing and defining voluntary standards at the European level; these are CEN, CENELEC and ETSI.

CEN stands for the European Committee for Standardisation and was founded in 1961. Its’ members work together to develop European Standards (EN’s). Why not ECS you may ask? CEN is derived from the French pronunciation, “Comité Européen de Normalisation”. It is an association that brings together the National Standardisation Bodies of 34 European countries, the BSI being one of them. Its mission is to foster the economy of the European Union but it is important to note that members are not limited to just those of the European Union. Members also include EFTA members (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) as well as other states (North Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia) and there are also additional affiliates and partner standardisation bodies, all of which can be found on the CEN website (www.cen.eu).

Founded in 1973, CENELEC stands for the “European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation”. Like CEN it is derived from the French title, “Comité Européen de Normalisation Électrotechnique”. CENELEC specialises in the area of electrical engineering. Similar to CEN, CENELEC works closely with the European Union, although it is not an EU institution. Members are made up of the national electrotechnical standardisation bodies of most European (geographical) countries including the BSI and there are also affiliate members and cooperation agreements.

Finally, ETSI stands for the “European Telecommunications Standards Institute” it specialises in standards for ICT-enabled systems, applications and services (Information and Communications Technology). The BSI is a member but members also include manufacturers, network operators, administrations, service providers and research bodies. Users are also from inside and outside of Europe and nearly a third of ETSI's members are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Each body has its own technical specialisation and there are no immediate plans to merge the three. The European Parliament noted in a resolution in February 1999 that CEN, CENELEC and ETSI co-operate smoothly and that a merger of the three standardisation bodies would not have clear advantages.

[edit] International Standards

Just like the European organisations, there are also three global parent organisations. These are ISO, IEC and ITU [CS1] who develop International Standards for the world.

The ISO began in the 1920s when it was known as the International Federation of the National Standardising Associations (ISA), however it was suspended during World War II. After the war the United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) approached the ISA with a proposal to form a new global standards body. In October 1946, the ISA and UNSCC delegates met in London at the Institute of Civil Engineers and agreed to join forces to create the new “International Organization for Standardization” which began in 1947. Interestingly, the ISO is not an acronym In French it is “Organisation Internationale de Normalisation”, the name was adopted in reference to the Greek word isos (ίσος), which means "equal". The BSI is a full member of ISO.

The IEC held its first meeting in June 1906, following discussions among the British Institution of Electrical Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and others. Lord Kelvin was elected as the first President of the International Electrotechnical Commission. IEC stands for the “International Electrotechnical Commission” (in English) and is an international standards organisation that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies. These combined technologies are also known as “Electrotechnologies” and they are all covered by IEC standards. The BSI is a full member of the IEC.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was originally the International Telegraph Union and is a specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies. It is the oldest global international organisation founded in 1865 and membership includes almost 200 member states as well as some 900 companies, universities and international and regional organisations. The UK’s date of entry is listed as 1871.

[edit] Collaboration

If the organisations above did not talk to each other, there would be lots of overlap and duplication of work. Therefore, there are agreements in place and it is in the best interest of national bodies, such as the BSI, to be members of the organisations at a European and International level.

[edit] CEN and ISO

In 1991, the Vienna Agreement was signed by CEN and ISO and came in force in the mid-2000s. The primary aim of this agreement is to avoid duplication of standards which could potentially be conflicting between CEN and ISO. Since then, CEN has adopted a number of ISO standards replacing the corresponding CEN standards. This in turn would mean that the British standard would be replaced, for example, BS EN ISO 13849-1. This is because the BSI is obliged to adopt and publish all European Standards as identical British Standards and to withdraw pre-existing British Standards that are in conflict. The designations are explained below:

	British Standard Designation
British Standard	BS
European Standard (must be adopted by Britain)	BS EN
International Standard adopted by Europe and hence Britain	BS EN ISO
International Standards adopted by Britain but not Europe	BS ISO

[edit] CENELEC and IEC

In 1996 the Dresden Agreement was signed such that CENELEC coordinates their standard development activities with IEC (like CEN with ISO). The names of older IEC standards were converted in 1997 by adding 60000 (for example IEC 204 became IEC 60204) and adoption by CENELEC as a European standard means that they are also published in the EN 60000 range. As of 2017, more than 90% of the standards passed by CENELEC used the Dresden Agreement process (which was updated in October 2017 with the Frankfurt Agreement) and now IEC standards adopted by CENELEC will be referenced as "EN IEC 6xxxx". Therefore, a British standard would be in the format “BS EN IEC 6xxxx”. The designation is similar to that of the agreement between CEN and ISO, Figure 3.

	British Standard Designation
British Standard	BS
European Standard (must be adopted by Britain)	BS EN
International Standard adopted by Europe and hence Britain	BS EN IEC
International Standards adopted by Britain but not Europe	BS IEC

[edit] ETSI and ITU

ETSI has collaborated with the ITU on standardisation projects almost since ETSI's foundation. A new agreement was signed in Geneva on the 3rd July 2012 which provides a common framework for future cooperation between the two organisations. Designed to improve the dialogue and exchange of information between the two organisations, it also provides a mechanism for the exchange of draft documents and referencing of each other's specifications.

[edit] CEN, CENELEC and ETSI

The European organisation CEN, CENELEC and ETSI are continually signing agreements about how they collaborate. The CEN/CENELEC collaboration was consolidated at the start of 2010 by the creation of a common CEN-CENELEC Management Centre (CCMC) in Brussels. The CCMC is in charge of the daily operations, coordination and promotion of all CEN and CENELEC activities. It is also responsible for handling the tasks assigned to it by both CEN and CENELEC General Assemblies, the Administrative Boards and the Technical Boards.

[edit] ISO, IEC and ITU

The technical committees and subcommittees of ISO, IEC and ITU also liaise and each of them have their own agreements. For example, the channel of correspondence for the establishment of communication between ISO and IEC is through the offices of the chief executive officers (CEOs). Therefore, with respect to the study of new subjects, the CEOs seek agreement between the two organisations when work is contemplated which may be of interest to the other. This is so that there is no overlap or duplication of effort. Annex B of ISO/IEC Directives Part 1 contains details on the ISO/IEC procedures for liaison and work allocation and any decisions are by either the technical management boards or, if necessary, the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Advisory Board (JTAB).

[edit] Other Collaborations

There are no liaisons between CENELEC and ISO/ITU or between CEN and IEC/ITU or between ETSI and ISO/IEC. However, the UK national body (BSI) being a member of each of them also interacts with them all.

[edit] BSI participation in International and European standardisation

As a member of each standardisation organisation, committees in the BSI are responsible for appointing delegates to international and European technical committees and also for finding suitable experts to participate in the working groups. You would normally expect between 1 and 4 people maximum from BSI to be attending any International or European committee meeting and any delegates participating in any work at these levels do so to represent the consensus and not themselves or any interest group. The aim of a BSI committee is to reach a consensus with respect to European or International standards and the delegates are to reflect this. If consensus cannot be achieved regarding a BSI vote, then a BSI abstention will be formally recorded. The BSI currently has just over 7% of votes at the main stages of the development process of each CEN and CENELEC standard and it is imperative that the BSI continue to be involved in all of these working groups. Currently, the British standards catalogue is made up of the following:

British standards 16%
International standards 27%
Identical European and international standards 25%
European standards 32%

[edit] Prior to Brexit

Prior to Brexit the BSI was obliged to adopt and publish all European Standards as identical British Standards (e.g. BS EN) and to withdraw pre-existing British Standards that are in conflict due to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI rules. This single standard model supports the European Single Market because it means that there is only one standard in use across all the countries of the single market on any given issue. The BSI also have the option to adopt and publish international standards that have not been adopted by CEN/CENELEC. This is favoured by industry because it reduces the number of standards that have to be considered when trading across borders. Plus standards cost money both to purchase and also comply with.

[edit] Post - Brexit

The UK left the EU on the 31st January 2020 and a transition period ran from this date until the end of the year to negotiate a trade agreement. As far as continued membership of the European Standards Organizations CEN and CENELEC was concerned, the official statement from BSI stated that it would continue to be a member of both organisations. This meant also meant the obligation to adopt EN standards and withdraw national standards that are contradictory to the EN standards.

A transition period to ensure that the membership statutes reflect the UK’s status outside of the EU which will began on the date of Brexit. This transition period for the CEN and CENELEC statutes was scheduled to the end of 2020 and not tied to the transition period negotiated between the EU and UK. CEN, CENELEC and BSI prefer to work at an international (ISO and IEC) than European level and then adopt the standards as EN’s. BSI’s membership of ETSI, ISO, IEC and ITU is unaffected by Brexit meaning likely minimal changes.

In November 2021 CEN and CENELEC General Assemblies, met in Palermo, Italy, and overwhelmingly confirmed the British Standards Institution’s (BSI) continued membership of the two associations from 1 January 2022. The decision included careful consideration by the CEN and CENELEC members, taking into account the impact of the UK’s exit from the EU and is consistent with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) agreed between the UK and the EU.

BSI stated at the time that membership provides clarity and confidence for CEN and CENELEC’s stakeholders in the role of standards across Europe. It will helps businesses to trade in a settled system and will support the UK’s long-term contribution to European and international standards. All CEN and CENELEC’s stakeholders, including those from the UK, will continue to participate and contribute to standards development as today.

You can find the BSI Brexit position report on the BSI’s Website (www.bsigroup.com)

[edit] About the Author

This article is based on an article written and published by Martin Kidman, UK Product Manager - Safety Solutions, prior to Brexit in 2020, reproduced here by permission with some post Brexit updates added.

It a aims to give a brief overview of each organisation and explain in simple terms how they work with each other internationally and where the BSI (the British Standards Institution) fits. For a comprehensive and complete explanation of this, the standard BS 0:2016 exists which can be downloaded from the BSI website (www.bsigroup.com). It is a “standard for standards” and contains the principles for standardisation at BSI.

If you think that you have the relevant knowledge and experience, or would like to represent a relevant group of stakeholders and become part of a Technical Committee, the BSI welcomes applications from all walks of life and are always actively seeking to increase diversity. The goal is to have a balance of views which represent the UK around the table. Even if you don’t want to be on a committee you can visit the standards development portal to suggest an idea for a new standard, view and comment on proposals for new standards and view and comment on publicly available Drafts for Public Comment (DPCs). For further information visit the BSi group