IIW History 1990-2015

SETTING THE STANDARD

a standardising body in accordance with ISO Resolution 19/1984 in 1986. CEN concluded

its arrangements with ISO by signing this agreement in which CEN was entitled to take

into consideration ISO standards wherever they existed, and ISO accepted those documents

prepared by CEN to be directly submitted to ISO without a vote for approval by ISOmember

bodies.

This arrangement allowed a standard from either ISO or CEN to be voted on by

both organisations simultaneously with one or the other as the lead organisation. CEN had

a clear advantage over IIW because most of the CEN members were also members of ISO

and therefore voting was numerically in their favour.

The three years following the signing of the tripartite agreement

were spent in prevarication and procrastination on the determination of a

Coordination Committee to improve relationships with ISO/CEN, plus all

the other incidental criticisms and negative comments on rules, competence

and authorities. At the SC-STAND meeting in Madrid on 11 September 1992

the proceedings were dominated by a somewhat acrimonious discussion over

the rejection of a standard from C-VII, apparently based on political rather

than technical grounds. This rejection prompted some of those present to

declare no further interest in standardisation. This generated further critical

discussion regarding IIW’s standardisation programme and the failure

to follow ISO rules. In conclusion, it was agreed that the long-proposed

meeting of a Coordination Committee should be held between IIW and ISO/

TC 44 as soon as practically possible.

At this meeting SC-STAND agreed to form the ISO/IIW Coordination Committee

to decide which organisation would take the lead on any given welding development.

This resulted in ISO/TMB Resolution 38/1995 relating to the formation of a Coordination

Committee to avoid duplication and fragmentation of work, with a responsibility for the

overall coordination and decisions of which work items should be dealt with by IIW.

CEN/TC 121 was invited to join as a full member of the committee but declined since it

did not want to be bound by the decisions of the Coordination Committee because it had

mandated work assigned to it by the European Commission. CEN/TC 21 was offered and

then accepted observer status on the committee and this allowed some collaboration and the

sharing of documents.

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A pivotal meeting was held earlier on 3 December 1992 at the ISO Central

Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, chaired by Dr J. C. Favre, Deputy Secretary-General of

ISO.

Based on this meeting the ISO Technical Management Board renewed IIW’s tenure

as an international standardising body for another one and half years on the provision of

a comprehensive report showing that substantial progress had been achieved by IIW in

managing their standards programme. This stimulated some progress in the development of