Lately some of the EN IEC adoptions have been renumbered as EN-IEC standards. Our Document Center customers are asking us why this change is being made. So when I was in Geneva Switzerland last month, this was one of the questions that I wanted answered by my European colleagues.
To my delight, Elena Santiago, the Director General of CEN and CENELEC, was a featured speaker at our IFAN (the International Federation of Standards Users) General Meeting. I had a chance to speak with her during a break. Of course, I had a number of questions for her, and one of them was about the new EN-IEC numbering.
Ms. Santiago explained that the new releases are the culmination of work begun a couple of years ago at the request of the CEN and CENELEC membership. The mandate is to bring the identical EN adoptions of the IEC standards into line with the protocol for the adoptions of the ISO standards. So the IEC adoptions are being reissued with a new number scheme that includes the IEC designation.
Why? “For traceability,” said Ms. Santiago. CEN and CENELEC members want the same clear acknowledgement of lineage that has always been a part of the ISO adoptions. So now when you see the EN-IEC standard designation, you know that you are looking at an identical EN adoption of the source IEC document.
Of course, I had more questions than this! One of them that’s getting a lot of attention from standards users in general is the issue of Brexit. Ms. Santiago not only discussed this with me, but also touched on it during her presentation. She is hopeful that during the CEN CENELEC meetings in November a vote can be taken to modify the membership rules of the organizations. With this change, the U.K. can continue to participate in and use the EN standards system.
I’m sure we’ll all be waiting to see how this particular story ends! Meantime, I’m glad to be able to shed some light on the new EN-IEC standards designation for you.
If you need to see if an EN standard you use is current and correct, please check in with our Document Center Sales Staff at info@document-center.com. Or call us at 650-591-7600. You can also look up any of the standards you use on our website, www.document-center.com. Any further questions, please ask. We’re here to help.
