European Committee for Standardization (CEN) - Explained
What is the European Committee for Standardization?
Written by J. Mance Gordon
Updated at April 21st, 2024
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What is the European Committee for Standardization (CEN)?
The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) is an international organization of 34 European countries. The CEN is aimed at accelerating and fostering European economies in global markets by providing infrastructure for trade and sets of standardization.
What does the European Committeee for Standardization Do?
The CEN was established in 1961 to introduce European Standards (ENs) to strengthen their internal economies and enable them to produce goods and services capable of competing in international markets. Now, the CEN is recognized by the European Union as a European body for setting standards for European goods and services. Besides the CEN, there are other institutions which are officially recognized by European Union for setting European standards. These include the European Committee for Electro-technical Standardization (CENELESC) and the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI).
The CEN has a large network of over 460 million people. The CEN is composed of more than 60,000 technical experts from different sectors, such as business organization, trade, technical, consumer and other societal institutions. The European Parliament has opted not to combine the CEN, CENELEC and ETSI opting instead to encourage their collaboration across functions. The CEN consists of twenty seven member states from the European Union, three member countries from the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and many other countries which are intended to join the European Union (EU) or European Free Trade Association (EFTA) now or in future. The CEN sets technical standards for European Economic Area to foster trade, promote environmental protection, ensure workers safety, explore researches and development. For instance, Construction Products Directives sets minimum standards for material to be used in construction and these standards must be met by Construction Company.
Vienna Agreement
The CEN and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) mutually agreed and signed an agreement in 1991. The agreements main purpose was to prevent any duplication in standards between CEN and ISO. The CEN has adopted many standards of the International Standardization Organization (ISO).