Help develop standards

Standardisation:

• Brings specialists from various disciplines together
• Creates a huge wealth of knowledge in a unique ecosystem
• Combines various perspectives to create joint solutions

Those who help to shape standards:

• Gain an insight into the needs of various stakeholders and define market requirements
• Get access to best practices, key players and future topics
• Give more weight to their own innovations, products and services

Austrian Standards:

• Manages a wide range of collective knowledge for all areas of the economy
• Ensures that Austria has a strong voice in European and international standardisation

Participants who are involved in committees represent the interested parties in the relevant standardisation topic. They decide whether something is standardised and define the material content of both purely Austrian as well as European and international standards by consensus.

Prerequisites

The participant:

• Is qualified, e.g. thanks to training or practical experience
• Regularly monitors technical developments
• Has foreign language skills (particularly English for European and international standardisation activities)
• Has personnel, time and financial resources

Tasks/requirements

• Regular participation in meetings or cooperation by means of correspondence
• Thorough preparation for meetings
• Participation in editing CEN and ISO documents as well as national standard suggestions
• Use of right of proposal and voting right
• Willingness to find consensus

When can comments be submitted?

There are various opportunities to help shape the content of standards. In addition to being directly involved in the committee, you can also comment on project proposals and drafts for standards.

How should comments be submitted?

You can submit your comments online. After initial registration, you can download a table of comments for each project proposal and draft and re-upload it with your annotations.

Information on the table of comments

Structure

A separate row in the table specifying the relevant draft section is used for each comment. This makes categorising and electronically processing statements easier.

Formatting

The font Arial 9 pt is pre-set for comments. Please do not change this format.

Language

As far as possible, technical comments concerning drafts from European and international standardisation bodies should be written in English, as English is generally the common working language.

Suggestions regarding editorial changes for German-language versions can be written in German.

Patent law aspects

Please let us know in your comments about any relevant patent laws you are aware of and send us documentation in this regard.

Legal information

By submitting your statement, you declare that it, together with your name (first name and surname) or the name of the organisation saved in your profile, will be published on the Austrian Standards website. Natural persons can revoke this consent at any time. The lawfulness of the consent to the processing carried out up to revocation remains unaffected. You also consent to the regulations with regard to copyright as set out in the rules of procedure ÖNORM 2022, section 9.13.

Is there are deadline for statements?

The deadline for statements is four weeks for a project proposal. For a standard draft, you have six weeks. The deadline is noted on the cover sheet of the relevant standard draft.

What happens to the statements?

All statements are dealt with by the responsible standardisation bodies. The result is published on the Austrian Standards website. You can find the table on the product page of the published standard in the online shop. Examples of a fully completed statement can be found under the following links:

• National document, ÖNORM X XXXX-X (PDF – 25 kb, German only)
• International document, ÖNORM EN XXXX-X (PDF – 106 kb, Germany only)

Can existing standards be commented on?

We are really interested in your experiences in using the standards. If you have any suggestions for improvement, you can send them to us using our online form.

CEN (European Committee for Standardization) is the platform for developing European standards. Austrian Standards is a CEN member and therefore offers you access to the European standardisation network.

Austrian specialists are present in many European committees (Technical Committees – TC) and therefore contribute their national perspective directly. Approved comments on drafts are submitted via the national mirror committee.

The secretariats of CEN/TC are held by a CEN member (national standardisation organisations).

You can find CEN secretariats led by Austrian Standards International (excl. working groups) here.

The permanent delegate from Austrian Standards International on the Technical Board of CEN (CEN/BT) is Karl Grün.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the platform for developing international standards. Austrian Standards is a member of ISO and provides a gateway to the international standardisation network.

Austrian specialists are present in many international committees (Technical Committees – TC) and therefore contribute their national perspective directly. Approved comments on drafts are submitted via the national mirror committee.

The secretariats of ISO/TC are held by an ISO member (national standardisation organisations).

You can find ISO secretariats led by Austrian Standards International (excl. working groups) here.