INSTITUTIONS
The European Committee for Standardization(CEN) André Pirlet, Specialist for Standardization and Research, CEN CEN is the European Committee for Standardization. It is contributing to the objectives of the European Union and European Economic Area with voluntary technical standards which promote free trade, the safety of workers and consumers, interoperability of networks, environmental protection, exploitation of research and development programmes, and public procurement. Standards are formal high quality documents, containing requirements and frequently also testing methods, for checking the compliance with these requirements. CEN is a non-profit making technical organization set up under Belgian law (www.cen.eu ). CENELEC and ETSI deal respectively with electro-technical and telecommunications standardization. CEN is basically in charge of standardization in all other sectors, including security and defence. In 2000, the European Commission organized a large Conference on ‘European Defence Procurement in the 21st Century: Improving Efficiency and Enhancing Competitiveness; the Role of Standardization’, recognizing that standardization is one of the facets to improve the competitiveness of the European Defence Industry. CEN was invited to support the creation of a European Handbook containing reference to the best standards to be used for defence procurements . CEN set up first a specific Forum (CEN/BT/WG 125) to ensure a continued dialogue amongst interested parties.
André Pirlet André PIRLET is Engineer from Liège University (Belgium) and MSc from Oregon State University (USA). He is handling in CEN Special Projects (new developments, including defence) but is mainly involved in reinforcing the links and cooperation between Standardisation and Research. Since 2002 he is a CEN representative in several research projects.
handling systems, Life cycle management (Service life management, integrated logistic support), Life cycle technical documentation, Quality of electric power supply – Portable electric power generators, and Terminology. It is foreseen to update and further expand this Handbook. The European Defence Agency has shown interest for taking the responsibility for the “maintenance” of that Hanbook. The EDA is indeed interested by the enhanced interoperability and efficiency which will be gained by the expanding reliance on the Handbook, in particular for joint operations within or outside the EU.
Defence Handbook For the drafting of the European Handbook, BT/WG 125 decided to use a CEN Workshop structure for its openness and flexibility. That CEN Workshop (CW 10) issued a CEN Workshop Agreement, CWA 15517:2006, the ‘European Standard Handbook’ for Defence Procurement (www.defense-handbook.org ). It contains references to standards and standard-like documents commonly used to support Defence Procurement contracts as well as guidelines on the optimum selection of standards and standard-like specifications in order to ensure effectiveness, efficiency and interoperability. The covered subfields are the following: NRBC detectors, Energetic materials, Fuels and lubricants, Batteries, Packaging, Electrical interfaces, Electromagnetic environment, Environmental testing, Armoured land vehicle technology, Ammunition, Paints and coatings, Fluid
The CEN-System
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