*** UNDER REVISION ***
The basic principle of the FA is that all relevant stakeholders' needs and expectations are duly taken into account when developing the international standards. Where IEC (draft) standards cannot be aligned to CENELEC's stakeholders' needs (e.g. alignment of the text to the European regulatory framework), CENELEC may decide to start a new work item on a Common Modification (see IR2 clause 2.14) to an IEC (draft) standard in order to supplement or modify an international (draft) standard. It is understood that modifications to an international standard could also mean deleting part of it.
1.1 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 in IEC TCs to identify and bring forward any specific European requirements (e.g. linked to European regulation) with the aim to have it taken into account in the international standard.
1.2 In case this is not possible after the comments resolution at IEC level (CD stage), the relevant CENELEC TB can ask CCMC to create a NWI for common modifications (European Amendment) to be approved during the parallel procedure provided that the corresponding text is available. The CENELEC TB has to draft the common modifications in the form of a European Amendment.
If the need for common modifications is identified during the parallel procedure and submitted to CCMC before the vote at IEC has started, i.e. before either IEC CDV or FDIS stages, CCMC automatically creates a NWI in the CENELEC database without the need for the CENELEC TB to request it to CENELEC BT.
1.3 If the common modifications are not ready for circulation before the approval of the International Standard, the CENELEC TB has to request CENELEC BT for approval of a NWI to develop and publish these common modifications.
NOTE: No matter when the common modifications come into the process, they will be published as a European Amendment, i.e. EN IEC 6xxxx:yyyy/A1x:20XX (e.g. EN IEC 61314:2018/A11:2019).
The resulting European Amendment (common modification) is offered to IEC (as EWI) for possibly adapting the IEC standard through the review process.
In case of the intended citation in OJEU, the common modifications follow the same process as described above.
The common modifications are sent (together with the mother standard) to the Harmonized Standards Consultants for assessment.
NOTE: In cases where just an Annex ZA and Annex ZZ needs to be included to the European adoption of an International Standard, they are not considered as common modifications since they are not changing the technical content of a standard and can be approved in a simple procedure by CENELEC BT.