CEN-CENELEC GUIDE 29. CEN and/or CENELEC Workshop Agreements – A rapid way to standardization. Edition 3, March 2024

In innovative markets there is often a request for a reference document to be quickly developed as a stepping stone to standardization deliverables, to facilitate interoperability and compatibility, enhance market uptake of innovative solutions and facilitate further incremental innovations in the market. However, if innovative technologies, including products, processes and services, have not yet achieved a sufficient degree of stability (Technology Readiness Levels – TRL), a European Standard may not be the best way of meeting this need, because of the nature of the standardization process and the requirement that all CEN and/or CENELEC National Members shall adopt the resulting standard. A CWA is a deliverable, which may take various forms such as a text file or computer code, developed and agreed by the participants in a temporary working group (CEN and/or CENELEC Workshop). It is designed to meet an immediate need, can be quickly developed and can be used as a fast track to future standardization activities. The stakeholder involvement is limited to those directly interested in the subject.

The direct participation of interested parties, the possibility to indicate the participants and their organizations in the Foreword and the rapid development process offered by a CWA are particularly attractive for European research and innovation projects, which have to deliver results within the limited duration of their project lifetimes. European Framework Programmes like Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe focus(ed) more and more on the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting and implementing EU policies, and support the uptake of innovative solutions in industry and society to address global challenges. Standardization is recognized as a tool to support this strategic objective. Consequently, well suited solutions like the CWA must be made available. 

Although a CWA is developed outside the normal CEN and/or CENELEC Technical Body structure, it is important to ensure the coherence of all the different CEN and/or CENELEC deliverables in order to protect the credibility of European standardization. A CWA, therefore, does not conflict with any European Standard (and a Harmonization Document for CENELEC). However, interest and collaboration from the related Technical Bodies is encouraged as these documents, especially covering innovative and emerging topics, can be seeding their future work programmes or the creation of new standardization areas.