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CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, and CENELEC, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, are continuing their efforts to provide people with the information they need in order to understand European standardization, and be able to use it to their advantage.

'StandarDays' is a two day information session aimed at newcomers to European standardization, as well as those who would like to understand CEN and CENELEC better.

The info days give a clear and structured overview of the European Standardization System, of the CEN and CENELEC products and processes, as well as the benefits of involvement in European standardization to potential stakeholders.

'StandarDays' will take place on 22 and 23 September at the CEN-CENELEC Meeting Centre, Avenue Marnix 17, B-1000 Brussels.

Format

‘StandarDays’ consists of an introductory plenary meeting, which explains the different aspects and tasks of CEN and CENELEC (day 1) and interactive, in-depth workshops (day 2). This structure gives participants the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the overall European Standardization System (day 1) and then take advantage of the CEN and CENELEC expertise to obtain further clarification and explanations (day 2).

For whom?

‘StandarDays’ are aimed at all actors interested in the European Standardization System: industry, consumers, administrations and government, European institutions, research centres, national standards institutes, etc.

Participation

Participation is free. Since there is a limited number of places, registrations will be accepted on a first come, first served basis and will close when the maximum number of participants is reached.

To participate in the ‘StandarDays’, please complete and return the registration form (.doc). You can either attend both days or only Day 1 or Day 2.

People who have already attended ‘StandarDays’ and are interested in attending more break-out sessions, can do so without any problem.

If you think your colleague might be interested in attending, please forward this message to him/her.

More information can be found on:
http://www.cen.eu/cen/Services/Education/StandarDays/Pages/8thStandarDays.aspx
and
http://www.cenelec.eu/Cenelec/CENELEC+in+action/Events/StandarDays/StandarDays.htm

We are looking forward to welcoming you to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre!

Meeting place: Convention Center

13th International Conference

Date: 12 and 13 October 2010
Focus: "Standards: Challenges of the future"

Main speakers:
- Ronnie Amit, IEC Secretary General;
- Alan Morrison, ISO President;
- Michael Taubitz, FDR Safety;
- Paul Crosta, SES President;
- Laura E. Hitchcock, Director of Standards, Boeing;
- David Dossett, President, CEN-CENELEC Mgmt Centre;
- Joe Bhatia, ANSI President.

37th IFAN Members' Assembly

Date: 14 October 2010
Please encourage your National Members to take part.

The programme will be issued by the end of July 2010

China’s IFAN member, the Chinese Association for Standardization, held its fifth annual "IFAN in China" workshop on the subject of "Towards a Low Carbon Economy; Standards and Certification" on June 24-25 in Urumqi, Xinjiang Province. This westernmost and largest Chinese province is rich in natural resources, and in addition to its abundant oil and coal, is a leader in wind and photovoltaic technology to produce electricity. Approximately 140 speakers and attendees participated in this focused conference on the current progress on technology and other measures being implemented to address the emission of greenhouse gases.

In addition to his welcoming / opening remarks and a discussion on Geneva-based IFAN as a worldwide corporate and national member organization promoting the interests of the users of standards and the benefits of membership, Mr. David Felinski, IFAN Vice President spoke on the current political and regulatory approach to carbon emissions in the United States. This formal presentation not only covered the U.S. approach in international agreements, but included a status report on “cap and trade” legislative efforts in the U.S. Congress, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Rule and their recent public endangerment finding for GHGs as a potential end-run around the legislative process, Mr. Felinski concluded with remarks on some of the controversy surrounding the assertions of global warming, including “climategate” and the Chicago Climate Exchange.

Keynote remarks were made by Mr. Ma Lin-cong, Vice President and Secretary General of CAS, Mr. Fu Rui, Minister of Quality and Technical Supervision for Xinjiang Province, and Cai Yongji, Director of Technology for National School Bus which was a major sponsor of the conference. In addition, attendees heard many excellent presentations on validation and verification of GHG emissions, the development of carbon emission standardization processes, and varied sectoral approaches to the reductions of carbon emissions such as in steel production and home appliance manufacturing. The IFAN in China Conference concluded with a tour of Goldwind, a large global manufacturer of wind turbines and sponsor of the conference, followed by a bus trip to a nearby wind farm in the Gobi desert and then on to nearby mountain foothills and breathtaking scenery. All five IFAN in China Conferences have been very successful and IFAN plans to continue working with CAS to develop future conferences on relevant and current topics.

Over the last several years, the International Federation of Standards Users (IFAN) and the Standards Engineering Society (SES) of North America have worked in close cooperation to enhance awareness of standards and conformity assessment activities, including the 2007 ‘joint’ SES and 12th IFAN International Conference in San Francisco, California.

In the spirit of this tradition of cooperation and partnership, we are pleased to share with you the program of events for the 2010 SES Annual Conference, which will be held in Boston, Massachusetts on August 15-19, 2010.
With the theme Strategic Leadership in the Development & Use of Standards, the 59th Annual SES Conference is an excellent opportunity to share information and best practices with your colleagues from organizations throughout the standardization community.
Attendees will hear from expert panelists and moderators on a number of key topics, including:

• Societal and legal issues
• Scalability of standards development programs
• Social networking activities
• New tools for standards development and dissemination

We should like to encourage your participation in this valuable and informative conference.  Additional details can be found online at www.ses-standards.org.

Should you have any questions or require additional information, please contact SES directly at (603) 926-0750.

Download the full invitation to the 2010 SES Annual Conference (.doc)

A new CEN/CLC Guide, which provides guidance to standards writers on how to take into consideration the needs of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) when creating standards, is available. The document was prepared by the CEN/CLC Technical Board Working Group 208 “Guidance on SME needs”, where IFAN participated in accordance with its MoUs with CEN and CENELEC. The CEN/CLC Guide 17 can be downloaded from www.cen.eu/go/SME and www.cenelec.eu/go/SME and is available in both English and French.

With the introduction of this Guide, CEN and CENELEC pay close attention to the interests of SMEs and in particular micro enterprises as potential users of standards. Having regard to SMEs constitute over 99% of enterprises in Europe, through addressing their needs, the use of standards may be significantly increased. Therefore, IFAN welcomes the creation of that Guide and congratulates CEN/CLC. The vast bulk of advice to standards writers are also of potential benefit to other standards users. Hence, this Guide complements IFAN Guide 3:2008 Guidelines to assist members of standards committees in preparing user-oriented European standards.

IFAN is inviting all persons wishing to express their artistic vision of the importance of standards and benefits of standards and standardization, to take part in the contest on preparation of the posters "Standards make the world go round".
The IFAN Board will serve as the contest jury. Posters accepted for the contest will be displayed on the IFAN Web site.

The prizes:
1st place: 3000 Swiss Francs
2nd place: 1000 Swiss Francs
3rd place: 600 Swiss Francs

For full details, please read the IFAN international poster contest announcement

The last 4th Workshop was successfully held in China, which provided a good platform of communications and sharing experiences to all participants. The 5th workshop "Low- Carbon Economy - Standard - Certification" is now scheduled on 24-25 June 2010 in Wulumuqi, Xinjiang (West of China). Certification and Accreditation Administration of China (CNCA) and China Association for Standardization (CAS) will host the workshop.

Please find herewith the draft programme of the 5th workshop. The invitation is sent to all IFAN members.

For participants abroad, all the fees from arrival to Wulumuqi, including transportation, accommodation, meals, will be paid by the workshop. The expense occurs in other situations will not be covered.

In case of interest, thank you to contact directly:

Ms. Zhang Wen
China Association for Standardization (CAS)
Tel: +86 10 68486268
Fax: +86 10 68485356
email zhw@china-cas.org

The European Commission has just made the EXPRESS Report "Standardization for a competitive and innovative Europe: a vision for 2020" available on their website. At the start you will find the main recommendations which can be listed as such :

• Cooperation between European Standardization Organizations
• Building on present strengths
• Engagement with policymakers
• Promotion of the benefits of standards
• Development of the services sector
• Meeting the needs of society
• Engaging SMEs; engaging all stakeholders
• Extension and promotion of New Legislative Framework
• Interactions with fora and consortia
• Building relationships with researchers and innovators

Link to the report : http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/european-standards/files/express/exp_384_express_report_final_distrib_en.pdf

Link to The Expert Panel for the Review of the European Standardisation System (EXPRESS) : http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/european-standards/standardisation-policy/policy-review/express/

Brussels (4 February 2010) - The newly formed SME Working Group (SME WG) established by CEN (The European Committee for Standardization) and CENELEC (The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization), met for the first time on 4 February 2010. The set-up of this new SME WG will allow closer monitoring of the actions targeting SMEs in the European standardization arena, and ensure their implementation and follow-up.  The SME WG has the ambition to “make the difference”, as Mike Low said, in reaching out to SMEs, SME trade associations and their related networks. For this, all stakeholders and interested parties, such as the European Standards Organizations, the European Commission and the national governments, need to join forces to work towards a common benefit: helping SMEs means helping the European market and economy.

Read the full press release (PDF, 228 KB)

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies (WP.6) is holding an International Conference on Risk Assessment and Management on 24-25 November 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Conference is organized to promote an exchange of experience on the use of risk assessment and management techniques in:

- technical regulations;
- standards;
- conformity assessment;
- accreditation;
- metrology;
- market surveillance.

The Conference will benefit from input from academia, governmental authorities, international standards organizations, conformity assessment bodies and business associations.

More information about the conference and registration can be found on the UNECE Web site.

We are pleased to announce that Kavi Corporation has joined IFAN as a corporate member. For information about Kavi, please see its Web site at www.kavi.com. Contact details are available for IFAN members only.