| Comité Européen de Normalisation Europäisches Komitee für Normung | |
 | |
 Countries in the CEN community | |
| Abbreviation | CEN |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1961 (1961) |
| Type | Regional standards organization |
Region | Europe |
| Website | www |
TheEuropean Committee for Standardization (CEN,French:Comité Européen de Normalisation) is a publicstandards organization whose mission is to foster the economy of theEuropean single market and the wider European continent in global trading, the welfare of European citizens and the environment by providing an efficient infrastructure to interested parties for the development, maintenance and distribution of coherent sets of standards and specifications.
The CEN was founded in 1961. Its thirty-four national members work together to developEuropean Standards (ENs) in various sectors to build a Europeaninternal market for goods and services and to position Europe in the global economy. CEN is officially recognized as a European standards body by theEuropean Union (EU),European Free Trade Association and theUnited Kingdom; the other official European standards bodies are theEuropean Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and theEuropean Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).[1][2]
More than 60,000 technical experts as well as business federations, consumer and other societal interest organizations are involved in the CEN network that reaches over 460 million people. CEN is the officially recognized standardization representative for sectors other than electrotechnical (CENELEC) and telecommunications (ETSI). On 12 February 1999, the European Parliament noted in a resolution that CEN, CENELEC and ETSI co-operate smoothly and that a merger of the three standardization bodies would not have clear advantages.[3]
The standardization bodies of the thirty national members represent the twenty seven member states of the European Union, three countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the United Kingdom and other countries that are highly integrated into theEuropean economy. CEN is contributing to the objectives of the EU andEuropean Economic Area with technical standards (EN standards) which promotefree trade, thesafety of workers andconsumers,interoperability of networks,environmental protection, exploitation ofresearch and development programmes, and publicprocurement. An example of harmonized standards are those for materials and products used in construction and listed under theConstruction Products Directive. TheCE mark is a declaration by the manufacturer that a product complies with all relevantEU directives.
CEN (together with CENELEC) provide aCEN/CENELEC platform[4] for the development of European Standards and other technical specifications across a wide range of sectors, also ensuring that standards correspond with any relevant EU legislation.
CEN (together with CENELEC) owns theKeymark, a voluntary quality mark for products and services. A product bearing the Keymark demonstrates conformity to European Standards.
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The Vienna Agreement was signed by CEN and theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1991 but came in force in the mid-2000s. Its primary aim is to avoid duplication of (potentially conflicting) standards between CEN and ISO. In the last decade CEN has adopted a number of ISO standards which replaced the corresponding CEN standards.[5]
On June 9, 2022, it was announced thatASTM International and CEN have agreed to extend and expand a Technical Cooperation Agreement from 2019.[6]
The current CEN Members are:
The current affiliates areAlbania,Armenia,Azerbaijan,Belarus,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Egypt,Georgia,Israel,Jordan,Lebanon,Moldova,Montenegro,Morocco,Tunisia andUkraine.[8]
The current partner standardization bodies areAustralia,Canada,Mongolia, andKazakhstan.[9]
