Common modifications to IEC (draft) standards

Where IEC (draft) standards cannot be aligned to CENELEC's stakeholders' needs (including but not limited to the need for compliance to the European regulatory framework), CENELEC may decide to develop common modifications through starting a corresponding New Work Item (see IR2 clause 2.14) in order to amend an IEC (draft) standard. Common modifications to an international standard could also mean deleting parts of it.

1 PROCESS FOR COMMON MODIFICATIONS

1.1 In line with the Frankfurt Agreement (FA), CENELEC should undertake all necessary actions during the development of IEC standards to allow as many identical adoptions of IEC standards as possible without the need to develop common modifications.

From the time the first committee draft of the future international standard is circulated at IEC level (IEC CD stage), the relevant CENELEC Technical Body (TB) should encourage European experts to identify and bring forward any specific European requirements (e.g. linked to EU regulation) in IEC TBs with the aim to have them taken into account in the IEC standard.

1.2 In case this is not possible at IEC and/or as soon as the need for common modifications has been identified, the relevant CENELEC TB can decide on the creation of common modifications, thereby requesting CCMC to create a corresponding Work Item amending the IEC standard with a European Amendment, i.e. EN IEC 6XXXX:YYYY/A1X:20XX (e.g. EN IEC 61314:2018/A11:2019). The Technical Board has developed a ‘Matrix of responsibilities’ which describes different roles and tasks depending on the IEC standard’s development stage when the common modifications are requested. This leads to different possibilities described in the next sections.

1.3 If the request for common modifications is introduced up to 2 weeks before the start of the IEC CD, the following actions are needed (see Slide 1):

• Technical Body to request the creation of a project for the Amendment (A1X) for common modifications via the CCMC Project Manager. No need to use the process for NWI approval.
• CCMC to create the project for the Amendment (A1X) in the work programme of the Technical Body.

1.4 If the request for common modifications is introduced between 2 weeks before the start of the CDV vote and the end of the CDV vote, the following actions are needed (see Slide 2):

• Technical Body to request the creation of a project for the Amendment (A1X) for common modifications via the CCMC Project Manager. No need to use the process for NWI approval.
• National Committees to recommend the preparation of common modifications during the parallel vote.
• CCMC to create the project for the Amendment (A1X) in the work programme of the Technical Body.

Following this situation there is a risk that the common modifications will be de-synchronized and therefore not in parallel with the EN IEC development process and eventually the publication.

1.5 If the request for common modifications is introduced between the end of the CDV vote and the end of the FDIS vote, the following actions are needed (see Slide 3):

• Technical Body needs to request the creation of a project for the Amendment (A1X) for common modifications following the NWI procedure. The common modifications will be developed on a different timeline than the international standard.
• The project will have to be approved following the voting procedure and CCMC will create the project for the Amendment (A1X) in the work programme of the Technical Body.

In this situation the development of common modifications will be de-synchronized from the EN IEC development process and final publication. To mitigate this, the Technical Body and BT could decide that the EN IEC publication should be put in standby until the common modifications are at the same development stage.

1.6 If the request for common modifications is introduced after the date of availability (dav) of the EN IEC, the following actions are needed (see Slide 4):

• Technical Body needs to request the creation of a project for the Amendment (A1X) for common modifications following the NWI procedure. Common modifications in this case are developed completely separated from the EN IEC standard, which is already made available.
• The project will have to be approved following the voting procedure and CCMC will create the project for the Amendment (A1X) in the work programme of the Technical Body

The resulting European Amendment (common modification) is offered to IEC as a European Work Item (EWI) for possibly adapting the IEC standard through the IEC review process (as described in the Day-to-day management of the Frankfurt Agreement).

2 PROCESS WHEN DEVELOPING A HARMONIZED EN IEC

In case the EN IEC responds to a Standardization Request (SReq) by the European Commission and/or is intended for citation in OJEU, the process to request common modifications follows the same steps as described in section 1. During the development, the amendment for common modifications together with the EN IEC standard is sent to the HAS Consultants or to the EC for an assessment. Further information on harmonized standards can be found in the page European Standards for citation in the Official Journal.

3 PROCESS FOR INCLUSION OF ANNEX ZZ AND ANNEX ZA FOR HARMONIZED EN IEC 

3.1 In case the Technical Body (TB) needs to include only the Annex ZZ and Annex ZA without common modifications to the text of the EN IEC, the TB should follow the principles described in the Matrix of responsibilities. Adding only the Annex ZZ and Annex ZA to the international standard is not considered a common modification since they do not change the technical content of a standard.

3.2 From the creation of the parallel project for the EN IEC by CCMC until 2 weeks before the start of the CDV, the following actions are needed (see Slide 5):

• Technical Body to confirm the link to legislation and Standardization Request to CCMC Project Manager. The draft Annex ZA can be requested from CCMC.
  It is the responsibility of the TB to provide the Annex ZZ and Annex ZA two weeks before the start of the CDV to CCMC.
• CCMC to update the legislation links in the database and to submit the Annex ZZ and the Annex ZA together with the EN IEC (through the dispatch notice) for the CENELEC Enquiry (ENQ).

In this case the CENELEC ENQ will be in parallel with the IEC CDV and include the Annex Z and Annex ZA.

3.3 If the request for inclusion of the Annex ZZ and Annex ZA is provided between 2 weeks before the start of the CDV vote and 1 week before the start of the FDIS vote, the following actions are needed (see Slide 6):

• Technical Body to provide the Annex ZZ and Annex ZA to CCMC at least 1 week before the FDIS start. No NWI needed.
• CCMC to create the project for Amendment (A1X) in the database and to request a HAS or EC assessment as soon as the Annex ZZ and Annex ZA are received.

Following this situation there is a risk that the Amendment (A1X) will be de-synchronized and therefore not in parallel with the EN IEC development process and eventually the publication.

3.4 If the request for inclusion of the Annex ZZ and Annex ZA is provided between 1 week before the start of the FDIS and the end of the FDIS, the following actions are needed (see Slide 7):

• Technical Body needs to request the creation of a project for the Amendment (A1X) for the inclusion of Annex ZZ and Annex ZA, following the NWI procedure, to be circulated as an Amendment (A1X).
• The project will have to be approved following the voting procedure and CCMC will create the project for the Amendment (A1X) in the work programme of the Technical Body.

In this situation the development of the Amendment (A1X) will be de-synchronized from the EN IEC development process and final publication. To mitigate this, the Technical Body could decide that the EN IEC publication should be put in standby until the common modifications are at the same development stage.

3.5 If the request for inclusion of the Annex ZZ and Annex ZA is provided after the EN IEC availability (dav) (see Slide 8):

• Technical Body needs to request the creation of a project for the Amendment (A1X) for the inclusion of Annex ZZ and Annex ZA, following the NWI procedure. The EN IEC is available at this stage already and the amendment will be published after its approval.  
• The project will have to be approved following the voting procedure and CCMC will create the project for the Amendment (A1X) in the work programme of the Technical Body