In 1996, CENELEC published a Corporate Plan 1996-2000 entitled: "Moving into the Twenty-First Century".

An updated and more condensed version of the CENELEC plan called "European standardization in the field of electrotechnology" was published in 1998. Both papers define the current policy of CENELEC and constitute a common basis for the activities of the national committees members of the association within the near future.
 
However, the rapid changes of both the economic and the technical environment of electrotechnical standardization call for a long-term plan of action based on visions about developments during the next ten years at least. These changes will have far-reaching impacts on the basis of CENELEC's existence and operation. The present situation of CENELEC seems to the insiders to be stable and sound. Thanks to the steady commitment of its national members, CENELEC has received a very solid financial basis that makes it independent of all external interest groups.

The electrotechnical standards are currently developed in Europe in an efficient way with the result that there exist no real technical barriers to trade due to electrotechnical standards in the European Economic area. CENELEC is also attractive for many other European countries. There is however no reason for complacency.
 
CENELEC has probably not made people sufficiently aware of its performance and realizations. In fact, as the visibility of CENELEC and its work has been rather low, the special features and advantages of the coherent electrotechnical standardization and its results are not always recognized by the public, including some European and national authorities.

All interested market players are however invited to contribute validly, at expert level, to the ongoing standardization efforts. This may also require the use of new tools and facilities. In this publication, the major trends in the further development of CENELEC's environment have been identified and an attempt to finding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) has been made.

Further discussions involving the political, social and economic partners of CENELEC may be necessary to refine and develop the long-term planning and operation.

The present publication is intended to inform all those interested in CENELEC, with a direct invitation to contribute to our thinking.

You may download this publication by clicking here.

Should you need more information, please contact the CENELEC Online Info Service.

The Visions 2010 document is complemented with the publication of the Masterplan, approved at General Assembly level in February 2006.