In order to strengthen bilateral standardization cooperation between Europe and regions outside Europe, CEN and CENELEC concluded several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with other regional standardization bodies.
The MoUs CEN and CENELEC have concluded are developed on an ad-hoc basis in order to fulfil the specific expectations of their respective communities and those of their counterparts.
One of the main objectives of these partnerships is for CEN and CENELEC to share their experience as successful regional standardization organizations, as well as to further promote standardization in ISO and IEC.
Some of these MoUs were concluded jointly with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the third European Standardization Organization.
CEN and CENELEC concluded Cooperation Agreements with national standardization organizations from countries outside Europe.
These agreements enable the exchange of information and cooperation opportunities on agreed topics, as well as, in some cases, support regulatory dialogues and trade negotiations.
The Cooperation Agreements are tailored to the specific interests of CEN-CENELEC and the concerned partner body.
The Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) - Full text of the agreement
The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) - Full text of the agreement
The Federal Agency for Technical Regulating and Metrology (ROSSTANDART) - Full text of the Agreement
The Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China (SAC) - Full text of the Agreement
The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) - Full text of the Agreement
The ESOs (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have a longstanding dialogue, spanning over 25 years. ANSI is the ISO Member Organization representing the US. It also hosts the secretariat of the IEC National Committee of the US (USNC).
ANSI represents a very different approach to standardization when compared with the European model. ANSI accredits US Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs), which are then likely to develop national standards for the US (referenced as ANS), while in Europe, we are developing European standards (referenced as ENs) ourselves.
For a better understanding of their structure and functioning, we invite you to read the:
Questions and Answers about the US standardization system (pdf format)
Questions and Answers about the European standardization system (pdf format)
CEN and CENELEC together with ANSI and their members (US SDOs) maintain technical dialogues in areas of mutual interest.