Principles of the change in standards
The completion of the common European market that is being striven for is leading to a harmonisation of the national standardization systems that exist across the continent. In many cases this means integrating the European norms/standards (EN), which are binding for every country, into the respective national body of regulations. In contrast to the ISO standards, EN standards must be adopted by all EU and EFTA countries. Relevant national standards (in Germany DIN and DIN-ISO standards) must be withdrawn when the EN standards are announced.
In principle, existing ISO standards should (if possible) be adopted unchanged as EN standards. If no agreement at EN level is possible, a consensus at ISO level must be the first objective. If ISO standards are adopted unchanged, the product designation is ISO.
National standards (DIN) will be largely replaced by European or international standards. In the future, DIN standards will apply only to products for which there are no ISO or EN standards.