CENELEC General Assembly looks to future and reinforces collaboration with IEC
Elena Santiago was nominated
at the General Meeting as
common Director General of
CEN and CENELEC
A number of key decisions were made at the 49th GA (General Assembly) of CENELEC, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, which was attended by more than 150 of its members, affiliates, cooperating partners and key stakeholders. Held on 30 June 2009 in Madrid, the event was hosted by AENOR, the Spanish Association for Standardization and Certification, and one of CENELEC's 30 members.
One of the main items on the agenda was the approval of the mission, vision and implementation plan of the new 2010-2013 strategy. The revised version encompasses three strategic goals that will orient CENELEC’s future activities, focussing on competition and innovation, internationalization, and European society and consumer confidence.
The strategy has a visionary and holistic dimension, confirmed in involving members and their industry representatives, as well as key company stakeholders. A key concept of the strategy is to interact with the international standardization community clearly continuing to reinforce CENELEC’s position within the IEC and to strengthen the successful professional relationship CENELEC enjoys with the IEC through the Dresden Agreement.
Among other items of particular significance was the finalization of the Board membership and the election of CENELEC’s new President, as well as the appointment of a common Director General for both CENELEC and CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, consolidating the close collaboration of the two bodies.
The Administrative Board of CENELEC was restructured in 2008 to be more balanced and more representative of Europe as it is today and the enlarged European standardization community. Its last vacant seats were filled at the 49th GA with the election of two new Vice Presidents and CENELEC’s future President, David Dossett, of BEAMA (British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers' Association). Dossett will complete a one-year term as President Elect in 2010 before taking over the presidency of the European organization.
Another important decision reached during the GA concerned the progress in the implementation of the FLES (Future Landscape of European Standardization). In December 2008, CEN and CENELEC moved to new joint premises.
Dietmar Harting, current
President of CENELEC (standing),
is pictured with David Dossett,
President Elect (second to right),
and other members of the
CENELEC Administrative Board.
.
At the June 2009 Assemblies of CEN and CENELEC, Elena Santiago was nominated as common Director General, a role she will assume in 2010. A cooperation package is being defined which includes a joint governing body for strategic issues with a focus on external relations and innovation, a joint management centre and optimized strengths and resources. The full package will be submitted to the CEN and CENELEC Extraordinary General Assemblies in November 2009 for final approval.
Following the GA, CEN and CENELEC held their joint 5th CEN-CENELEC Annual Meeting. The theme of the conference, "Sustainable Use of Energy" directly supports CENELEC’s new strategic objective of innovation and competitiveness, clearly identifying the need to foster sustainable innovative standardization activities and integrate green and innovation-led aspects in an effort to improve energy efficiency.
The event was attended by some 200 industry representatives, members and key stakeholders and provided a platform for horizontal discussions during plenary sessions and technical insights during the break-out sessions. Further information and conference material can be found on the CENELEC homepage.
CENELEC
CENELEC is an IEC regional partner. CENELEC works to harmonize IEC International Standards at regional level, as do a number of other regional standardization organizations such as CANENA, the Council for Harmonization of Electrotechnical Standards of the Nations of the Americas, COPANT, the Pan American Standards Commission, PASC (Pacific Area Standards Congress) and ARSO (African Organization for Standardization). Working agreements, based on the exchange of information, exist between the IEC and these organizations. In the case of CENELEC, a joint working agreement exists, comprising some 30 IEC National Committees. The cooperation agreement, ratified in September 1996, and commonly known as the Dresden Agreement, relates to:
- common planning of new work
- parallel IEC/CENELEC voting
Its object is to avoid duplication of effort, speed up the preparation of standards and ensure the best use of the resources available, particularly the time of experts who participate in standardization work. If the results of parallel voting are positive in both the IEC and CENELEC, the IEC will publish the International Standard, and the CENELEC Technical Board will ratify the International Standard as the European standard.
Some IEC experts belong to both organizations. In order to ensure that they do not duplicate work and to facilitate cooperation between the two organizations, CENELEC has adopted Collaboration Tools developed by the IEC and made available free of charge to both regional and national organizations. These IT (Information Technology) tools are accessible with a specific password from both the IEC and the CENELEC or relevant national websites.
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