- The standards of the Spanish Association for Standardization, UNE, are recognised as a means of demonstrating compliance with legal obligations and are key to accessing public works tenders. More than 2,000 standards related to construction are cited in legislation.
16 October 2019. More than 5,500 UNE standards are related to the construction sector, which represents 17% of the overall catalogue of standards of the Spanish Association for Standardization, UNE. The Spanish standards body has launched its Firm Steps communication campaign with the aim of highlighting the benefits of technical standards for the economic, business and consumer sectors.
The construction industry is one of the sectors most familiar with the benefits of technical standards. These promote the legality, safety and quality of processes, systems, services and products linked to construction. Of this figure, more than 2,000 UNE standards are cited in the construction legislation, enabling the Administrations to deploy public policies and draft specifications, and companies to comply with legal requirements. In fact, standards are recognised by the Administrations and the market as a means of demonstrating compliance with legal obligations.
An illustrative example are the harmonised standards drawn up under the European Construction Products Regulation and developed pursuant to mandates issued by the European Commission to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN).
In addition, UNE standards have other advantages for the construction sector: They improve the safety conditions of workers in companies; they increase accessibility in a building environment; they contribute to sustainability and promote public BIM policies (Building Information Modelling).
The standards, which are voluntary, reflect the market consensus on best practices in key aspects for the competitiveness of organisations, and are the result of joint collaboration of the economic sectors and Public Administrations.
