Besides their dedication and commitment to international standardisation through their memberships and the Vienna and Dresden agreements, CEN and CENELEC, as European regional standardisation bodies, have always been open for cooperation/collaboration with other standardisation bodies worldwide, aiming at increasing trade with partners outside the European Economic Area by sharing with them the European model of Quality Infrastructure and integrating them in the international standardisation arena.
The European Commission and EFTA also actively support the global awareness activities carried out by CEN, CENELEC and ETSI as a tool to enhance the competitiveness of European businesses worldwide.
These are the main reasons why CEN and CENELEC are active in so many areas of the world.
CEN and CENELEC recognise that the cooperation/collaboration with third country National Standardisation Bodies (NSBs) or with regional standardisation bodies may take several shapes depending on their links with the European Economic Area, their wish to participate in technical activities and their interest in the results of the European Standardisation process, but also opportunities for implementation of EU and EFTA (co-)funded projects. In that respect, CEN and CENELEC proposes four different models of cooperation:
For National Standard Bodies in third countries the concepts of:
- Affiliation;
- Standardisation Partnership (PSB);
- Cooperation Agreement
- Visibility projects
For the regional grouping of those NSBs:
- Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
- Technical Assistance projects