Standards development flexible process: Part 1 - Principles & operational aspects

In 2019, CEN and CENELEC Technical Boards approved the principles and operational criteria of the new standards development process that will be implemented as of April 2020: the so called ‘Flexible process’. The concept of flexibility refers to the fact that it will be up to the Technical Committees (TCs) to decide, work item per work item, according to their needs, resources and expertise, how much time to allocate to the standards drafting stages.

The TCs will then be empowered to autonomously plan and organize the work for each work item within a maximum timeframe. It implies in return a full commitment by the TCs to actually deliver on time what is expected.

This new system will be applicable to any home-grown CEN and CENELEC work item as well as CEN work items under Vienna Agreement with CEN lead, including those developed in the frame of a Standardization Request.