Standards making process

Drawing on 30 years of experience we have evolved a well proven standards-making process which ensures our standards are of high quality and produced efficiently.

All our standards conform to our highly respected Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy, which balances the needs of standardisation for public use with the rights of the owners of IPRs.

Consensus & transparency

ETSI’s standards-making process is based on consensus and openness. Our members decide:

• what to standardise;
• the timing and resourcing of the task;
• the approval of the final drafts.

So, the standards we produce truly respond to the needs of the ICT industry, as represented by our members.

Creating a standard

A proposal to start an item of work, such as to create a new standard or to update an existing one, must be supported by at least four members of ETSI and be agreed by the relevant standards group.

Who writes the standards?

Technical Committees or other types of working groups, made up of representatives of our members and led by a “Rapporteur”, draft most of our standards. Our members may participate in any group and work activity (other than certain security-related work where participation is controlled by the ETSI Board).

Specialist Task Forces (STFs) are commissioned by our technical committees to accelerate the work where there is an urgent need. STFs are groups of technical experts under contract to ETSI who come together for a defined period to work intensively on specific items.

Industry Specification Groups offering an effective alternative to industry fora. They can be set up quickly to address specific technology areas.

Man touching a compliance concept on a touch screen with his finger

Who approves the standards?

Depending on the document type, it will be approved by either:

the participants in the relevant committee; or
the entire ETSI membership; or
the National Standardisation Bodies (NSBs) or the National Standards Organisations (NSOs).

In the case of European Standards developed based on a proposal from at least four (4) Full and/or Associate members, ETSI’s National Standards Organisations give the final approval.

In the case of European Standards or European standardisation deliverables developed in response to Standardisation Requests from the European Union, ETSI’s National Standardisation Bodies from the member states of the European Union give the final approval.

We provide a range of web-based approval mechanisms, to make this a highly pragmatic and visible process.

How are standards approved?

Different approval procedures are used depending upon the type of standard being created.

TS, TR, GS, GR and SR
EG and ES
EN
EN and European standardisation deliverables
Voting

TS, TR, GS, GR and SR

Technical Specifications (TS), Technical Reports (TR), Group Specifications (GS), Group Reports (GR) and Special Reports (SR)

After the Technical Committee or the Industry Specification Group has approved the draft, it submits it to the ETSI Secretariat which publishes the standard following an editorial clean-up.

EG and ES

ETSI Guides (EG) and ETSI Standards (ES)

These two types of documents are approved by the full ETSI membership, using the ‘Membership Approval Procedure’:

After the Technical Committee has approved the draft document, the ETSI Secretariat makes it available to the Members for approval.
Each ETSI full and associate member may vote as to whether the ETSI Guide/ETSI Standard should be adopted.
If the vote is successful the ETSI Secretariat publishes the ETSI Guide/ETSI Standard.

EN

European Standards (EN)

ETSI may elaborate ENs on proposal from at least four (4) Full and/or Associate members in accordance with the provisions of Article 2.2.1 of the Technical Working Procedure. These ENs shall be adopted by the eligible NSOs through the EN Approval Procedure (ENAP) as specified in Article 13.2 of the Rules of Procedure.

The ENAP comprises a Public Enquiry and a Weighted National Voting procedure performed in a single process:

After the Technical Committee has approved the draft document, the ETSI Secretariat makes it available to the National Standards Organisations (NSOs).
The eligible NSOs shall conduct a national consultation and submit their national position (Weighted National Voting) to the ETSI Secretariat by the closing date of the combined procedure.
NSOs carry out the Public Enquiry. This involves national consultation and submission of the national position (the Weighted National Voting procedure).
If the vote is successful, and if no technical comments are received as a result of this national consultation, the ETSI Secretariat finalises the draft document and publishes it.
Any technical comments received during Public Enquiry are considered by the Technical Committee who discuss them during the planned resolution meeting and categorise them as either “minor changes” or “substantial changes”. See clause 2.2.1.1.1.2 and onwards for full details.
If minor changes are implemented, a Weighted National Voting procedure is initiated.
After a successful vote, the ETSI Secretariat publishes the European Standard.

EN and European standardisation deliverables

ETSI may elaborate European Standards and European standardisation deliverables in response to Standardisation Requests to support European Union legislation or policies, in accordance with the amended Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012.

These documents are adopted by the eligible members of the NSBG throughout the ETSI Standardisation Request deliverables Approval Process (SRdAP) and in accordance with the provisions of Article 21 of the Rules of Procedure, and those of Clause 2.2.2 of the Technical Working Procedures.

Standardisation Request deliverables Approval Process (SRdAP)

Upon receipt of the official Standardisation Request (SReq), each NSBG member expresses the national position to accept or reject the SReq through a Weighted National Voting procedure.

Each member of the NSBG expresses the national position to adopt or reject proposed Work Items related to Standardisation Requests (WISR).

The rest of the approval process is similar to ENAP, with the distinction that voting and decision-making is reserved for the National Standardisation Bodies (NSBs).

Where linked to legislation, European Standards that have been elaborated, adopted and published by ETSI in response to SReqs are qualified as European Harmonised Standards (hEN) once cited by the EC in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

Voting

Votes are successful if at least 71 % of the weighted votes cast are in favour of the draft. This applies to all types of documents, except for some Group Specifications. For European Standards the vote of each nation is weighted as agreed by the ETSI General Assembly. For other types of document, the vote of each ETSI member is weighted as agreed between the members.

Publication

The approved standard is published by the ETSI Secretariat. The Secretariat works closely with those drafting the document and is responsible for ensuring that the relevant procedures have been followed. This helps to guarantee the high quality of the final document.

Maintenance

Maintenance is an important part of the standardisation process. It is how ETSI adapts its standards to evolving technology and the developing needs of the market.

Our standards are updated as required to take account of the latest developments and revised versions are published.

Standardisation principles

ETSI standards and technical specifications are developed through processes which fulfil the following criteria.

Openness

ETSI standards and technical specifications are developed on the basis of open decision-making accessible to all interested parties in the market or markets affected by those ETSI standards and technical specifications.

Consensus

The decision-making process is collaborative and consensus based and does not favour any particular stakeholder.

Transparency

Our Work Programme and schedule of all standards under development is publicly available online.
All information concerning technical discussions and decision making is available to all members.
Information on new standardisation activities is publicly and widely announced.
Participation of all relevant categories of interested parties is sought with a view to achieving balance.
Consideration is given to comments by interested parties.

Maintenance

ETSI standards and technical specifications are maintained over a long period.

Availability

ETSI standards and technical specifications are publicly available from our website (free of charge).

Policy

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) technically essential to the implementation of the ETSI standards and technical specifications have to be declared in a timely manner and are licensed on Fair Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory terms (FRAND) which can be without monetary compensation.

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Relevance

ETSI standards and technical specifications are effective and relevant.

ETSI standards and technical specifications respond to market needs and/or regulatory requirements.

Neutrality and Stability

ETSI standards and technical specifications do not significantly limit the possibilities for implementers to develop competition and innovation based upon them.

ETSI standards and technical specifications are based on advanced scientific and technological developments.

Quality

The quality and level of detail are sufficient to permit the development of a variety of competing implementations of interoperable products and services.