It all started 20 years ago in Vienna
The Vienna Agreement signed in June 1991 in Vienna provided co-operation between the European and international standardization communities with a basis that is still as future-oriented today. In early November 2011, experts coming from all over the world took stock of past achievements and discussed future challenges — a review of the international conference “20 Years Vienna Agreement”.
Vienna (AS prm, 2011-11-16)
June 1991 is a historic date in the relations between European and international standardization: At the Austrian Standards Institute in Vienna, the secretaries-general of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Jacques Repussard (CEN) and Lawrence D. Eicher (ISO), signed an agreement, which has become well-known as the Vienna Agreement, to create a new basis for co-operation between the two organizations.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this co-operation, the Austrian Standards Institute hosted the international conference „20 Years Vienna Agreement“ attended by around 100 persons from Austria and around the world on 4 November 2011.
Against the backdrop of plans for the European internal market in which European standards were recognized and used as one of the most important tools for dismantling technical barriers to trade between the EU’s member states, the objective of the Vienna Agreement was to prevent a growing divergence of European and international standardization. At the same time, it was intended to avoid conflicting specifications in European and International Standards and the duplication of efforts.
As a result, success stories and experiences, but in particular prospects for the future of joint European and international development shaped the 20th anniversary conference. In his welcome address, ISO President Dr. Boris Aleshin stated that the European Union was the most advanced example of economic integration of member states world-wide and, in this context, used International Standards to maximize benefits for the economy, administration and consumers. He emphasized that ISO was proud to contribute to this development and thereby ensure that resources are optimally used for standards development.
- Credit: ASI prm
A great success
The vice-presidents of CEN and ISO, Ernst-Peter Ziethen and Jacob Holmblad, respectively, reported on 20 years of experiences and learning processes based on the Vienna Agreement.
CEN Vice-President Ziethen called the Vienna Agreement a great success. While two separate technical committees of ISO and CEN had frequently discussed one and the same subject, this was now done by the same experts in a single TC. That was the most important outcome for all those active in standardization.
Today, out of a total of 13,542 European standards (EN), more than 4,170 are already identical to International Standards (ISO). Currently, ISO leads the development of 810 joint European and International Standards and CEN is in charge of 160 ones. ISO Vice-President Jacob Holmblad confirmed that the two organizations continually worked on improving co-operation and raising its effectiveness.
According to President Boris Aleshin, ISO was interested in further intensifying co-operation with regional standardization organizations. Agreements already existed with transnational organizations in Africa, the Arab region, South-East Asia, Latin America, the Pacific region and the CIS countries.
Their primary aim was to take over ISO standards as far as possible and develop national standards only if suitable International Standards were not available. In comparison with those regions, the European Union had most systematically advanced the economic integration of its member states with the help of standards.
In their statements, Stephen P. Cornish, ANSI (USA), Dr. Grigory Elkin, ROSSTANDART (Russia), Baoquan Shi, SAC (China) and Takashi Kawabata, JISC (Japan) discussed co-operation between CEN and ISO from the perspectives of other countries and regions. They concurred that original fears of a dominant role of Europe in international standardization had proven to be unfounded.
Standards – economy – society
Interaction between the economy, society and standards was the topic of a presentation by the economist Univ.Prof. DDr. Werner Clement of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. „Standards very closely depend on how the economy and society develop. In their turn, standards also influence social development,“ stressed Professor Clement in his overview of economic developments since 1991 and an outlook on possible trends up to 2021.
Univ.Prof. DDr. Walter Barfuß, President of the Austrian Standards Institute, explained in his conclusions on the conference „20 Years Vienna Agreement“: „As usual in all fields, it is a question of interests – at the national, European and international levels. Reaching the necessary consensus that benefits all is the great achievement of standardization and the persons involved in it.“
