European Committee for Standardization
CEN, the European Committee for Standardization (Comité Européen de Normalisation, Europäisches Komitee für Normung), is an international non-profit organization set up under Belgian law. Through its services, it provides a platform for the development of European Standards (ENs) and other consensus documents. CEN's 31 National Members work together to develop these publications in a large number of sectors to help build the European internal market in goods and services, removing barriers to trade and strengthening Europe's position in the global economy. More than 60.000 technical experts from industry, associations, public administrations, academia, and societal organizations are involved in the CEN network that reaches over 480 million people. The European Commission and the EFTA (European Free Trade Association) Secretariat act as CEN's Counsellors in terms of regulatory or public interest.
CEN works in a decentralized way. Its members – the National Standardization Bodies (NSBs) of the EU and EFTA countries – operate the technical groups that draw up the standards; the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre (CCMC) in Brussels manages and coordinates this system.
CEN is one of the three European Standards Organizations (ESOs) whose main objective is to remove trade barriers for European industry and consumers.