Standards in Europe : the case of information technology

Imposed by the coming European market of 1993, the standard harmonization in Europe, decided by the European economic Community, is mainly conducted by the various European standards institutions. Therefore, the CEPT ( the European conference of postal and telecommunications administrations) is responsible for the telecommunications standards ; all other standards, principally those related to information technology, are under the responsibility of the CEN (European committee for standardization) and the CENELEC (European committee for electrotechnical standardization), both of them using common principles in the preparation of their standards. These organizations produce different documents : the EN (European standards), the ENV (European prestandards), the HD (Harmonization documents) and the reports. The standards must be used in each member State. AFNOR, which is the French member of the CEN responsible for their registration and certification, will also take an active part in the preparation of community standards.
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