FAQs

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FAQs

Article 8 of Law 21/1992 for Industry, defines a standard as "The technical specification of repeated or continuous application, the compliance of which is not mandatory, established with the participation of all interested parties, which is approved by a recognised body, at a national or international level, for its regulatory activity."

UNE, the Spanish Association for Standardization is a private and independent non-profit association and is recognised in Spain as the national standardization body, in line with the Regulation on Infrastructure for Industrial Quality and Safety, approved by Royal Decree 2200/1995 and Regulation (EU) 1025/2012 on European Standardisation.

What is the relationship between UNE and standardization at European and international level?

UNE is the Spanish standardisation body in the European Committee for Standardisation, CEN; in the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation, CENELEC; in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI; in the Pan-American Commission for Technical Standards, COPANT; in the International Organisation for Standardisation, ISO; and in the International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC.

International Organization for Standardization

International Electrotechnical Commission

Pan-American Standards Commission

European Committee for Standardization

European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization

European Telecommunications Standards Institute

CEN and CENELEC develop, with the participation of all the national standardization organisations that constitute them, such as UNE, the European EN standards. These must be adopted as UNE standards by putting the letters UNE before the code of the European standard.

In this way, the European standard EN 1234:2019 will be added to the Spanish national catalogue as UNE-EN 1234:2019.

Similarly, ISO and IEC develop them with the national bodies concerned and finally publish their international standards. These can also be adopted at a European level or directly at a national level. In the first case, the standard ISO 123:2019, for example, would be adopted as UNE-EN ISO 123:2019.

If this international standard is not adopted as a European standard, but if it is decided to adopt it at a national level in UNE, the corresponding code would be UNE-ISO 123:2019.

Are UNE standards compulsory?

UNE standards are voluntary, but by their reference in legislative provisions, the Regulatory Authorities can decide if their content, in whole or in part, becomes mandatory. In this regard, it should be noted that 12% of the catalogue of UNE standards is cited in the national legislation.

For the sectors that draw up technical standards, legislation based on such standards will contribute to reducing the costs associated with compliance, because they have a prior understanding of the requirements and can gradually become adapted to them.

Who can propose the drafting of a new standard?

The proposal to develop a standard can originate from any entity, whether public, private, the UNE or its Governing Bodies, International or European standardisation bodies at the proposal of a member country.

UNE is the body responsible for managing new standardization initiatives, establishing the appropriate mechanisms for their dissemination, study and implemention.

To perform this function, UNE carries out several actions aimed at gauging the opinion of the various stakeholders, in order to establish the national stance for each proposal and to implement suitable mechanisms to influence and track the developments that achieve sufficient support.

If you want to offer your opinion, get information or participate, please contact normalizacion@une.org. If you wish to propose a new standardisation development, you can use this form below to provide us with the requested information so that we can evaluate your proposal.

Where can UNE standards be consulted?

UNE standards are drawn up and published by the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE), designated by Order of the Ministry of Industry and Energy of 26 February 1986 as the national standardisation body, and therefore, the aforementioned Association should be contacted for queries on UNE standards.

Furthermore, through this organisation, you can consult technical standards of other international standardization organisations (ISO, CEN, CENELEC, etc.)

How can I know if there are standards for a specific industry/topic?

On the UNE website you can access a search engine that will allow you to find information on projects under development, as well as on the standards themselves included in the catalogue.

How can I access the content of standards and projects?

In order to facilitate access to standards for all organisations, and in particular SMEs, UNE offers stakeholders various mechanisms to access the content of standards and standard projects:

UNE has a documentary fund of updated texts of Spanish standards, which are available to the general public in person for free consultation. To make an enquiry, please contact UNE. In addition, at the offices of AENOR, distributor of the UNE Standards, you will be able to consult and acquire not only the UNE standards themselves, but also the standards of other national and international standardization organizations.

On the UNE website you can consult information and an extract of the content of all the UNE standards that will help you to identify their relevance for your activity.

You can access draft UNE standards under public consultation and make comments on them through the UNE Project Review System. All comments received will be considered by the committee in charge of drafting the standard. You can also subscribe to any areas of interest that you would like to be kept informed every time a new project enters the public information stage, letting you keep up to date with the latest information at all times.

How can I buy UNE standards or other regulatory documents?

On the AENOR website, you can access the purchase process.

Additionally, standards can be acquired with favourable terms through UNE at various sector associations, professional associations and other types of collaborating entities. The prices of these are subject to agreement with the administration.

How are UNE standards developed?

Technical standards are developed by the national standardization body (UNE) through the Technical Standarization Committee in which all parties concerned in their drafting are voluntarily present.

AENOR facilitates their development by collaborating with companies, public administrations, research organisations and social agents, with the government participating in part of standardisation process and the dissemination of the corresponding results.

The process of drawing up UNE standard is subject to a series of phases thus ensuring that the final document is the result of consensus, and that any person, even if they do not belong to the body drawing up the standard, can voice their opinions or comments.

Prior to their approval, the Official State Bulletin publishes the monthly list of UNE projects that are in Public Consultation stage, during which time any interested person or company can submit observations. You can access the draft UNE standards under public consultation and make comments on them through the UNE Project Review System.

Observations should be communicated to UNE. Once the comments received in this phase have been analysed, the committee will write up the final text, which will finally be approved and published as a UNE standard.

How can I take part in the development of a standard?

If you are interested in participating directly in the elaboration of a standard in one of the Technical Committees for Standardisation, please contact normalizacion@une.org

Similarly, you can participate indirectly by reviewing and issuing comments to draft standards when they are in the public information phase.

What does UNE gain from companies participating in standardisation activities?

Participation in standardisation activities allows us to:

Acquire detailed knowledge of standards, and in this way anticipate needs and trends.
Influence the contents of standards and guarantee that their specific requirements are taken into account.
Establish contacts with other interested parties, experts and regulators at both the national and international levels.

How can I comment on projects at public information stage?

The main stage in the development of a standard, to guarantee due transparency, is the Public Information (PI) stage. During this stage, any citizen can make comments relating to any ongoing project.

If you would like to know which projects are in IP and comment on them, you can do so through the UNE Project Review System. All comments received will be considered by the committee in charge of drafting the standard.

You can also subscribe to any areas of interest that you would like to be kept informed every time a new project enters the public information stage, letting you keep up to date with the latest information at all times.

What support and tools exist to encourage the participation of SMEs in the standardization process?

Participation in the creation of standards is very accessible for SMEs. They can take part in the standardisation process at nationa, European or international level. UNE offers solutions focused on increasing their knowledge and understanding of standardisation, inviting SMEs to make their voice heard in the standardisation process. You can consult all the solutions provided by UNE at the following link.

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European and international standardization