A standard (French: Norme, German: Norm) is a technical document designed to be used as a rule, guideline or definition. It is a consensus-built, repeatable way of doing something.
Standards are created by bringing together all interested parties such as manufacturers, consumers and regulators of a particular material, product, process or service. All parties benefit from standardization through increased product safety and quality as well as lower transaction costs and prices.
A European Standard (EN) automatically becomes a national standard and therefore is included in the standards catalogue of CEN's Members, the National Standardization Organizations in 34 countries.