Cooperation with ISO and IEC

Cooperation with international standards organizations

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) – non-governmental organization with its seat in Geneva, established in 1947,

International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)– non-governmental organization with its seat in Geneva, established in 1906.

The aim of both organizations is to support and advance worldwide cooperation in all issues connected with standardization, develop and promote international normative documents, mainly International Standards.

ISO and IEC documents constitute recommendations to be applied worldwide. They are published as International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports or Guides and are adopted by member countries.ISO and IEC deliverables constitute the basis for national and regional standards, for conformity assessment systems (certification) and technical agreements in international trade. International Standards can also be used by governments in their legislative work, as the basis for national technical regulations.

It is not obligatory for ISO or IEC members to implement ISO or IEC standards as national standards, although this is recommended to facilitate international trade (e.g. such a recommendation is included in Annex 3 to the WTO/TBT Agreement - “The Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards”).

ISO and IEC play an important role in the globalization process:

• they satisfy needs of the global market for international normative documents and conformity assessment systems;
• they establish the conditions indispensable for interoperability of complexes and systems;
• they help to improve the quality of products and services and the effectiveness of technological processes;
• they play an important role in international activities connected with protection of the environment, health and safety.

The scope of interest of ISO includes various areas of science, technology and economics, with the exception of telecommunications and sectors assigned to IEC - electrotechnology and electronics.

Although the electrotechnical sector is relatively new, it is the area where the need to cooperate appeared first. IEC was established in 1906. The Polish Electrotechnical Committee joined IEC in 1923. This membership is still valid regardless of all organizational changes in the Polish standardization system. . At present, the Polish Committee for Standardization (PKN) performs the duties of the IEC National Committee of Poland.

Poland has also recognized need for international standardization in other areas. In 1947, PKN became a charter member of ISO.

Our cooperation with IEC and ISO is similar as international standardization is based on the same fundamental principles - internal regulations are shared by ISO and IEC (ISO/IEC Directives) and the organizations follow similar procedures.

There are two levels of membership in ISO and IEC. The first level is to take part in overall activities of the organization. A National Standards Body – NSB (in IEC it is the National Committee – NC) is a member and its representatives can be elected for all management boards or other decision-making bodies of the organization.

The second level concerns participation in technical work. Each NSB (NC) declares its membership status in work of Technical Committees (TC) or subcommittees (SC), or alternatively, informs of the lack of interest in work.

There are two categories of membership:

• “P” membership (participating member) means active participation in the TC/SC work; this gives the member both rights and duties, such as timely commenting on working documents and voting on drafts of normative documents, as well as attending meetings.
• “O” membership (observer) ensures access to working documents and possibility of attending TC/SC meetings as observers – i.e. without the right to participate in decision-making processes.

Significant contributions have been made by PKN, and this is shown in the number of ISO and IEC committees and subcommittees where PKN is a “P” and “O” member.

Polish experts actively participate in many Working Groups (WG) and other technical bodies. It means that Polish experts, members of PKN Technical Committees (KT), are involved in international cooperation. This involvement is realized by commenting on documents and taking part in meetings of TCs/SCs and WGs. It entails considerable effort in terms of finance and planning.

As ISO and IEC have switched to the fully electronic circulation and processing of documents, current cooperation and correspondence is exclusively carried out in the electronic environment.

Statistics of PKN participation in ISO and IEC TCs/SCs (December 2011):

*) including data of ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee JTC 1 and its SCs and Joint Project Committee JPC 2.

**) Percentage of total active ISO and IEC TCs/SCs.

PKN is a member of the ISO policy development committees:

• P member of DEVCO (Committee on Developing Country Matters)
• O member of COPOLCO (Committee on Consumer Policy)
• P member of CASCO (Committee on Conformity Assessment)
• P member of REMCO (Committee on Reference Materials)

PKN, as an ISONET (ISO Information Network) member, plays an important role in shaping ISO information policy.

Polish experts are delegated by PKN to Working Groups (WG), various task forces and working teams (TF, MT, PT) of ISO and IEC. At present (December 2011), there are 96 experts in 129 ISO WGs, and 74 experts in 122 IEC WGs.

Each member of ISO and IEC has the right to run secretariats of TCs or SCs.

In these terms, a contribution of PKN is not significant. It is a consequence both of considerable organizational and financial resources needed for this purpose and of tough competition (national bodies from countries that are leaders in certain areas lobby to run secretariats, as this is beneficial for manufacturers).

PKN is responsible for secretariats (in ISO also for chairmanship) of the following ISO and IEC TCs or SCs: