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CENELEC (french: Comité Européen de Normalisation Électrotechnique; en, European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) is responsible for European standardization in the area of electrical engineering. Together with ETSI (
telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
) and CEN (other technical areas), it forms the European system for technical standardization. Standards harmonised by these agencies are regularly adopted in many countries outside Europe which follow European technical standards. Although CENELEC works closely with the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
, it is not an EU institution. Nevertheless, its standards are "EN" EU (and EEA) standards, thanks to EU Regulation 1025/2012. CENELEC was founded in 1973. Before that two organizations were responsible for electrotechnical standardization: CENELCOM and CENEL. CENELEC is a
non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
under
Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
law, based in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. The members are the national electrotechnical standardization bodies of most European countries.


Relationships to countries


Members

The current members of CENELEC are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.


Affiliate members

Albania, Belarus, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Tunisia and Ukraine are currently "affiliate members" with a view to becoming full members.


Other

CENELEC has cooperation agreements with: Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and an informal agreement with the USA.


History

After the Dresden Agreement (1996), CENELEC coordinates standard development activities with IEC. Older IEC standards were converted in 1997 by adding 60000, for example IEC 27 became IEC 60027 and the same standards are also published in the EN 60000 series to indicate adoption by CENELEC as a European standard; for example IEC 60034 is also available as EN 60034. Regional European standards issued by CENELEC, which are not adopted IEC standards, are numbered in the EN 50000 series. , more than 90% of the standards passed by CENELEC used the Dresden Agreement process. The alternative process in which a member National Committee proposes a standard is called the Vilamoura process (or procedure). The Dresden Agreement was updated with the Frankfurt Agreement in October 2016,CENELEC Cooperation with IEC
/ref> and decisions are detailed in CENELEC Guide 13 (2016). Following the publication of this guide, IEC standards adopted by CENELEC shall be referenced as "EN IEC 6xxxx".


Voting

, a weighted voting system was in place, with member countries having the following number of votes: * France, Germany, Italy, and UK: 10 votes (each) * Spain: 8 votes * Belgium, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland: 5 votes * Austria and Sweden: 4 votes * Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Norway: 3 votes * Luxembourg: 2 votes * Iceland: 1 vote For a proposal to pass, 71% of members need be in favor (according to weighted system above) or 71% of EEA members need be in favor (excluding Switzerland). this system was updated as follows: * France, Germany, Italy, (non-EU) UK, (non-EU) Turkey: 29 votes (each) * Poland and Spain: 27 votes * Romania: 14 votes * Netherlands: 13 votes * Belgium, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, and Portugal: 12 votes * Austria, Bulgaria, Sweden, and (non-EU) Switzerland: 10 votes * Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia, and (non-EU) Norway: 7 votes * Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and (non-EU) North Macedonia: 4 votes * Malta and (non-EU) Iceland: 3 votes The weighted voting standard was maintained at 71%, meaning that if the 17 largest-weight countries vote for a standard it will pass (this also means the top 50% y weightcountries voting in favor). If a proposal does not pass this way, a second vote taking into account only EU members is taken, with the threshold again being 71%. However, unlike EU member states, non-EU CENELEC member countries are not required to transfer EN standards into national standards (although they usually do so).


See also

*
European Committee for Standardization The European Committee for Standardization (CEN, french: Comité Européen de Normalisation) is a public standards organization whose mission is to foster the economy of the European Single Market and the wider European continent in global t ...
(CEN) *
European Telecommunications Standards Institute The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization in the field of information and communications. ETSI supports the development and testing of global technical standard ...
(ETSI) * European Office of Crafts, Trades and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises for Standardisation (NORMAPME) * European Norms Electrical Certification (ENEC)


References


External links

* {{authority control Electrical safety standards organizations European Union and science and technology Science and technology in Europe Standards organisations in Belgium