Review of European Standards

This page specifies the actions required to undertake the review of a European Standard (EN) and to communicate the outcome to the CEN Technical Board (BT).

1 PROCESS (Flowchart)

1.1 CCMC initiates the systematic review five years after the publication date of the EN or earlier upon decision of the TC or BT, or following a request of a CEN Member, the EC or EFTA Secretariat or CCMC.

For EN ISO Standards, CEN does not carry out systematic reviews. ISO carries out the systematic reviews on the corresponding – identical – ISO standards and decides on their future:

• if ISO confirms the ISO standard, the corresponding EN ISO standard is considered as confirmed as well;
• if ISO decides to amend or revise the ISO standard, a corresponding project (work item) is registered in the CEN programme of work, under the Vienna Agreement, ISO lead;
• if ISO decides to withdraw the ISO standard, CCMC proposes to BT to withdraw the corresponding EN ISO as well.

When there is no Technical Body mirroring the activities of an ISO TC, BT is responsible for any activities related to those WIs.

Every Quarter, CCMC launches electronic ballots for the CEN members for all ENs that have reached five years after publication and thus for which the review should be initiated (this does not include EN ISO standards). This is also visible on PROJEX-ONLINE.  The eBalloting is 20 weeks in duration and CEN members are asked the following 3 questions:

    1. Which action do you recommend?

    2.If the enquiry results show a need to revise the standard, we are prepared to PARTICIPATE in the development of the project

    3.Is this European Standard, or its national adoption, referenced in regulations in your country?

The results are made available on the eBalloting portal for the TC to access. 

1.2 The TC (or the BT if there is no responsible TC), being responsible for the maintenance of the EN, is required to review the results of the systematic review.

1.3 The TC (or BT) decides on the future of the EN by taking a Decision (simple majority) to:

• confirm the EN (Confirmation does not lead to the publication of a new edition);
• withdraw the EN and release the standstill (In principle, ENs should not be withdrawn without replacement except in cases of obsolete technologies);
• revise the EN (a new WI ballot shall be initiated; weighted vote if the scope is modified, otherwise via simple majority, the ballot on the adoption of NWI or activation of PWI shall take two months, PWIs may be created during TC meetings if the intention is announced on the draft agenda two months before the meeting);
  
  o by preparing a new edition (with a new date), or
  o by applying the Vienna Agreement (parallel work or taking over an ISO standard covering the same subject);
  

  In case ISO starts a revision under the Vienna Agreement and CEN lead is assigned, this implies that the principles of the flexible development process apply. Therefore, CEN/TC shall take a decision on the proposed target dates to dispatch the ENQ and FV drafts to CCMC and the corresponding duration in weeks, which can be taken either by correspondence or at the CEN/TC meeting.

The old standard is valid until its replacement by the new edition; there is thus continuity and normally no standstill problem. The CEN Members voting in favour of a revision should commit themselves to participate in this revision.

1.4 If the TC decides to withdraw the EN, the decision is confirmed by the BT, using the procedure 'Treatment of BT decisions by correspondence'.