European Standards

Standards are technical specifications defining requirements for products, production processes, services or test-methods. These specifications are voluntary. They are developed by industry and market actors following some basic principles such as consensus, openness, transparency and non-discrimination. Standards ensure interoperability and safety, reduce costs and facilitate companies’ integration in the value chain and trade.

While the use of standards is voluntary, adopting them can bring important benefits such as improved safety and quality, increased consumer confidence, and access to new market opportunities.

The European standardization landscape is quite diverse as briefly illustrated in Figure below, and it ensures the support of the innovator in a structured, pluralistic, transparent and consensus way.

At the European level, standards are created by three European standardisation organisations (ESOs):

• European Committee for Standardisation (CEN)
• European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC)
• European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

At the national level, standardisation is managed by national standardisation bodies (NSBs) which:

• adopt and publish national standards
• adopt all European standards as identical national standards
• and withdraw any conflicting national standards.

Through Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI (the European Telecommunication Standards Institute) are the three European Standardization Organizations that are officially recognized as competent in the area of voluntary standardization for Europe.

Source: CENCENELEC Guide 39

ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) supports the timely development, ratification and testing of globally applicable standards for ICT-enabled systems, applications and services. CENELEC activities cover electrotechnical standardization whilst the scope of CEN activities is very broad, covering among others remaining sectors such as Chemicals, Construction, Consumer products, Energy and Utilities, Defence, Food and Agriculture, Healthcare, Health and Safety, Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), Machinery safety, Services, transport and Packaging, etc. Joint activities of CEN and CENELEC cover converging technologies and ICT such as Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, etc.

CEN, CENELEC, and ETSI coordinate through various joint committees and groups to avoid duplicating work and to address issues of common interest. Examples include the Cyber Security Coordination Group (CSCG), the Smart Grid Coordination Group (SG-CG), and the Coordination Group on Smart Manufacturing. A higher-level coordinating body, the Joint Presidents’ Group (JPG), also oversees policy and technical cooperation among the three organizations.

The European Standardization System is unique in the world. After the publication of a European Standard, each national standards body or committee is obliged to withdraw any national standard which conflicts with the new European Standard. Hence, one European Standard becomes the national standard in all the 34 Member countries (Single Market).

Standards are crucial to Europe’s market power and are a pillar of its Single Market. They are fundamental to realisation of EU’s vision and objectives it has set for itself through its European Green Deal, Digital Strategy and New Industrial Strategy.

Standardization has contributed significantly to the completion of the Internal Market in the context of the “New Approach” legislation, which refers to European standards developed by the European standards organizations (CEN, CENELEC, ETSI).

Standards are also key to innovation, competitiveness, and ensuring the EU remains a global standard-setter, particularly in strategic sectors like digital technology and the green economy. 

European Standards play a key role in:

• Facilitating the Single Market
• One European Standard replaces 34 national standards
• Enhancing safety and quality
• Supporting public policy
• Boosting competitiveness
• Driving innovation
• Supporting public procurement
• Harmonizing with EU legislation

European standards are market driven and any stakeholder affected by a standard can have a say in its development. Standards are developed by private standardisation organisations. These organisations bring together businesses, experts, consumers, and other stakeholders who see a need for common rules that make products, services, and processes work better together.

Standardisation results from voluntary cooperation between industry, businesses, public authorities, and other stakeholders. About a fifth of all European standards are developed following a standardisation request (SReQ/Mandate) from the European Commission to the European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs).

Draft requests are drawn up by the Commission services through a process of consultation with a wide group of interested parties including social partners, consumers, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), industry associations and EU Member States. Before being formally sent to the ESOs, they are submitted to the Committee on Standards set up under Regulation (EU) 1025/2012 or a Comitology vote. If this vote is positive, the Commission adopts the request as a Commission Implementing Decision.

The ESOs, which are independent organisations, have the right to refuse a request.

There are three types of standardisation request (SReQ/Mandate):

1. Study mandates to check the feasibility of the foreseen standardization work
2. Mandates requesting the elaboration of a standardization programme and
3. Mandates for the development and adoption of European standards.

European standards and European standardisation deliverables even when drafted under a Commission request and for European legislation, usually remain voluntary. However, when European standards are adopted, National Standardisation Bodies (NSBs) should transpose them into identical national standards and withdraw any conflicting national standards.

At CEN-CENELEC, If the proposal is accepted, a sufficient number of national standards bodies or national committees agree to participate and adequate financial resources are available, CEN/CENELEC allocate the work to an existing working group of the responsible technical committee or sets up a new working group with appropriate experts.

One of the national standards bodies assumes responsibility for running the secretariat. In the absence of an international standard that can be adopted unchanged as a European standard, the responsible working group prepares a first draft (taking into account any international standards that have already been published on the subject).

This first draft might be followed by others until a consensus is reached on making the proposal available for public discussion.

CEN-CENELEC begins the public enquiry by releasing English, French and German versions of a European draft Standard-(prEN). The national standards bodies have five months in which to send in their national view.

On the basis of the comments received, the responsible working group formulates a final draft in English, French and German. In a formal vote over a two-month period, the members then decide whether to accept this final draft as a European standard.

In this case the draft must either be approved or, if not, then reasons for a negative vote must be given. Approval of the final draft is dependent on its receiving at least 71 % of the weighted votes of CEN members. If the content of the final draft Standard differs substantially from the first draft, in exceptional cases a second draft Standard is published and re-submitted to public enquiry.

In ETSI the standard development process is similar; the main difference is that in ETSI the individual members participating in the respective Technical Committee decide directly on new standardization work and approve new ETSI standardization deliverables. The final decision is made through vote among all ETSI members.

Ratification of a European Standard (EN) takes place automatically one month following positive voting. After ratification a European standard must be implemented by the national standards bodies as a national standard, and any conflicting national standards must be withdrawn, thus there are no conflicting standards in the market.

European standards are expected to be developed within a time frame of thirty-six months, each stage is to be completed within a set time, though it is possible to apply for an extension to this period. If work is not completed by the end of the set deadlines, the work item will be deleted.

There are other European standardization deliverables that differ from European standards in the way they are developed, the time frame for their development, and the degree to which they are binding: European Technical Specification; European Technical Report and Workshop Agreements.

The vast majority of standards issued by ETSI are issued as ETSI deliverables: ES (ETSI Standards), EG (ETSI Guides), and ETSI specifications and reports.

The international equivalents of CEN , CENELEC are the ‘International Organization for Standardization’ (ISO) and the ‘International Electrotechnical Commission’ (IEC) respectively. The Vienna (CEN/ISO) and Frankfurt Agreements (CENELEC/IEC) describe the cooperation between the European and global level.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is a partner in both the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP^TM)and the oneM2M partnership project, contributing to standards for 4G, 5G, future mobile generations, and machine-to-machine communications. ETSI also maintains a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to support mutual referencing of standards, reduce duplication, and promote global interoperability.