CEN Enquiry – Report and comments

Guidance on the tasks to be carried out at the end of the CEN Enquiry.

1 OBJECTIVES

• to gather all comments made during the CEN Enquiry and to make them available together with the voting results;
• to ensure transparency of the decisions taken by the TC on every recorded comment;  
• to limit the delays between the end of the CEN Enquiry and the finalization of the final draft for the next stage.  

2 PROCESS GUIDANCE

2.1 Introduction

CCMC and the Technical Committee (TC) Secretary are responsible for all the follow-up actions to be carried out after the CEN Enquiry.

CCMC should report on the results of, and on all the comments made during, the CEN Enquiry by the CEN members, the Partner Organizations, the Affiliates, organizations outside the CEN System (e.g. ISO Members or other) and HAS Consultant(s), if appropriate. 

The TC Secretary should report on the decisions on how the individual comments have been dealt with during the 'comments resolution meeting'.

2.2  Report after the CEN Enquiry and preparation of the 'comments resolution meeting'

2.2.1 Administrative preparation after CEN Enquiry
At the deadline of the CEN Enquiry, CCMC shall:

• collect the voting results and comments from the E-balloting platform on Livelink;
• report all the comments received using the 'Table for comments and secretariat observations', in accordance with GD – 'Use of the Commenting Form' and collate the comments automatically using the ISO collating tool.

NOTE:  In case of a request for an A-deviation, the responsible CEN Member has to provide all the data needed in order to facilitate the work and the decision of the members of the 'comments resolution meeting', and later on, the decision of the TC. See GD – National regulations – Possible conflict with CEN work).

It has to be noted that the same form 'Template for comments and secretariat observations' is used at various stages of the process. Firstly, it is used by the CEN Members and other issuers of comments. Then the individual files are compiled by CCMC as one single file (as mentioned above) and finally this will be updated after the 'comments resolution meeting' to include the decisions and actions on all the comments received (see 2.3).
At this stage, the document prepared by CCMC is referred to as 'Table for comments and secretariat observations'.

CCMC:

• uploads onto Projex-Online the voting report and the comments within the next working day after the deadline of the CEN Enquiry.

The TC Secretary:

• circulates the voting report and the 'Table for comments and secretariat observations' to the TC members after the deadline of the CEN Enquiry;
• announces at the same time the venue and date of the 'comments resolution meeting' (if appropriate). 

2.2.2  'Comments resolution meeting'

The 'comments resolution meeting' should be held within four months from the deadline of the CEN Enquiry.

Although the TC retains the responsibility for the whole procedure, it may decide to delegate the 'comments resolution meeting' to the level of a Subcommittee (SC) or  a Working Group (WG).
This meeting should decide on every recorded comment in the table of comments and should make a formal written proposal for the future of the draft:

• to skip the Formal Vote and go straight to publication whereby a draft decision shall be circulated by the Technical Body for approval (with a maximum 1 month consultation period). Approval of the decision, is based on simple majority; or
• to propose modifications to the draft according to the decisions taken concerning the comments and hereby sending the prEN to parent TC for submission as FprEN to the Formal Vote (see Process - CEN Enquiry); or
• in case of important technical modifications, to request a TC decision to forward the modified prEN to a second CEN Enquiry; or
• to request a TC decision to change the deliverable from EN to CEN/TS or CEN/TR (see Process -Delegated decisions); or
• to request a TC decision to stop the work and to withdraw the work item (see Process - delegated decisions).

2.3 Report after the 'comments resolution meeting'

At this stage, the document prepared by the TC Secretariat is referred to as 'Table of comments and decisions of the TC' (or 'Table of decisions').
The TC Secretary should:

• record all the decisions related to each comment and check that none is missing; 
• whenever a comment is disapproved, give a justification; 
• lay down all the decisions in the 'Table of decisions'; 
• when the justifications of disapproval of a comment are too long to be put in this table, create a well referenced annex;
• check that the formal written proposal is in accordance with what was agreed on during the 'comments resolution meeting';
• circulate the 'Table of decisions' and the formal written proposal to the TC for final decision and to CCMC and other organizations outside the CEN System for information, as soon as possible, but at least within two months of the 'comments resolution meeting';
• if the decision is positive to skip the Formal Vote, upload the ‘Table of decisions’ on the Submission Interface.
• finally, if the text is to proceed to Formal Vote or a second Enquiry, ensure that the prEN is updated to include all the modifications required as a result of the decisions taken.

3 POLICY GUIDANCE 

The final draft ready for submission to Formal Vote should be sent to CCMC by the deadline (see
BT N 8140: The three year timeframe for the development of European Standards – Rules and implementation system).
Therefore, it may be necessary to use procedures by correspondence at the level of the participants of the 'comments resolution meeting' and/or at the level of the TC for final decision and/or at the level of the Editing Committee (for the preparation of the final version of prEN in conformity with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations - Part 3.