British Standard Institution’s (BSI) continued membership of CEN and CENELEC

Published on: 02 December 2021

On 25 November 2021, the CEN and CENELECGeneral Assemblies met and overwhelmingly voted to support the British Standards Institution's (BSI) continued membership of CEN and CENELEC. This decision followed the adoption of new statutes in June, which created a new type of full member category for countries that find themselves in the UK's position of exiting the EU.

This decision will provide certainty and continuity for UK stakeholders and is in line with the UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and supports the UK Designated Standards System, which specifically refers to the role of European Standards.

BSI experts will still have the rights to contribute to European technical work and will still continue to have the rights to propose new work items, apply to hold secretariats and to nominate committee chairs.

The new membership category will allow BSI to retain all rights to run committees, to participate and adopt ENs. However there will be some changes to how BSI is represented in the governing bodies of CEN and CENELEC, but BSI's seat on the Technical Boards continues unchanged.

This enables British Marine and other UK stakeholders to continue to engage through BSI at European level on standards development to ensure that those standards developed for the marine industry are fit for purpose and retain continued alignment for single product lines for both UK And EU markets.