According to the common obligation assumed by the participating State, through which the EN standard will give the relevant national standard of a Member State a legal status or revoke the relevant standard of a country to which it is opposed. This means that the national standards of the Member States must be consistent with the EN standards.

CENELEC and CEN and their associated institutions CEN / CENELEC are the most important standard setting bodies in Europe.

CENELEC was founded in 1976 in Brussels, Belgium, by the merger of two early institutions. Its purpose is to harmonize the electrical standards issued by the European standards bodies and to remove technical barriers to trade. CENELEC is a member of the European Community of 12 member states and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) seven member states of the national committee. In addition to Iceland and Luxembourg, the remaining 17 countries are members of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

CEN was founded in 1961 in Paris, France. Since 1971, CEN moved to Brussels and later worked with CENELEC. In the business scope, CENELEC is in charge of all areas of electrical technology, while CEN manages other areas. Its member states are the same as CENELEC. In addition to Luxembourg, the other 18 countries are members of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).