Our partnerships

We have many relationships with diverse organizations around the globe.

National Standards Organizations 

ETSI works closely with each European country's national standards body or ‘National Standards Organization’ (NSO). 22 out of the 40 NSOs are members of ETSI. All of them have a key role to play in our standards-making process and in other areas of our work.

In the approval of European Standards (ENs), the NSOs have the exclusive responsibility for:

• carrying out the Public Enquiry (consultation with national industry)
• submission of the national position (the ‘vote’) on the standard
• ensuring the transposition of ENs into national standards
• ensuring withdrawal of any conflicting national standard

Valuable liaison opportunities

• NSOs play an active role in other standardization bodies which may impact on our work.
• NSOs are connected at a local level to industry in sectors beyond Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This is increasingly important to us as our standardization activities broaden to include the integration of ICT into other sectors.
• NSOs have good contacts with small- and medium-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises, which can often be the home of technological innovation. NSOs can therefore act as an interface to potential new areas for standardization at an early stage in the development of the technology.

Working in partnership

Experience has shown us that working with others is the best way to:

• align our standards with those produced by others
• avoid the duplication of effort
• ensure our work is widely accepted and implemented

We have built up a portfolio of partnership agreements with international and regional Standards Development Organizations and fora and consortia around the world.

Our work with partners can range from an informal exchange of information, to development of joint specifications and full cooperation. We have developed different partnership models to meet the different needs of our committees and our partners.

Types of partnership

ETSI has three different types of partnership agreement.

Letter of Intent (LoI)

The LoI is a first step towards formalizing contacts with a new partner. It is used to exchange promotional/operational information and identify common roadmaps.

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

The MoU enables technical collaboration on identified common areas of mutual interest. Observers attend each other's meetings in view of exchanging information. Unlike the LoI, the partner to an MoU needs to be a legal entity.

Cooperation Agreement (CA)

The CA provides different ways of achieving specific technical needs.

For a Cooperation Agreement to be possible:

• the partner must be a legal entity
• its IPR policy must be compatible with ETSI's IPR policy.

The Cooperation Agreement can be extended with:

• a Working Supplement (to produce joint deliverables or follow joint working procedures)
• a Materials Supplement (to incorporate text and graphics from one party’s published document into another party’s document)
• a PAS Supplement (to adopt the partner’s Publicly Available Specifications as ETSI Technical Reports (TRs) or ETSI Technical Specifications (TSs))

For further details please contact our External Relations Officer.

Publicly Available Specifications (PAS)

The ETSI PAS process enables an ETSI partner to submit one or more of its Publicly Available Specifications for adoption by ETSI. It will then become an ETSI Technical Specification (TS) or ETSI Technical Report (TR).

Why use the ETSI PAS process?

A Publicly Available Specification published as an ETSI Technical Specification will benefit from:

• ETSI's recognition as a European Standards Organization
• our international reputation as a provider of standards for global use
• increased visibility among ETSI's members

Submitting a PAS to be published as a TS can be a first step towards it becoming a European Standard. ETSI's standards and specifications can be referred to in European public procurement contracts.

Who can submit a specification?

Any Standards Development Organization, forum or consortium can submit a Publicly Available Specification to ETSI, provided that:

• it is a legal entity
• it has an IPR policy compatible with ETSI's
• it has signed a Cooperation Agreement

How to submit a specification

• The PAS submitter should contact ETSI's External Relations Officer
• The organization submitting the PAS must have a Cooperation Agreement (CA) signed with ETSI. Otherwise, it must negotiate one with the help of ETSI's External Relations Officer
• The partner and ETSI agree to a PAS Supplement to the Cooperation Agreement. This contains the provisions for submission, adoption and maintenance of the PAS
• An ETSI Technical Body is identified to be the host of the PAS work item
• The Technical Body reviews and approves the PAS as a Technical Specification or Technical Report following the normal ETSI procedures. A PAS is adopted as a whole

You can download a PAS Process Guide describing how to use the PAS process and its benefits. A brochure on how to bring your PAS into ETSI is also available.

For further details please contact our External Relations Officer.

List of partnership agreements

We have built up a portfolio of partnership agreements with international and regional Standards Development Organizations and fora and consortia around the world. You can consult our database of partnership agreements on the ETSI Member Portal.