Work Programme Nearly Completed
CEN/TC 189, the European geosynthetics standardisation committee, met this year in Gent (Belgium) on 9th and 10th of June, 2005. Traditionally the working groups met on the first day and a plenary session took place on the second day. On the evening between the two sessions the delegates enjoyed a dinner offered by the Belgian host delegation in a historical setting in the city centre.
The period 2004-2005 has been very successful with the publication of more than 30 standards and amendments to standards. This effort has reduced the extent of the active work programme to only a handful of remaining items. This leads to following general conclusions:
- The work programme as conceived more than 15 years ago is now completed. The approval of the terminology standard (EN ISO 10318) and the two last product standards for geosynthetic barriers (geomembranes) marks the finish of that programme
- A complete set of product standards (relevant requirements for a specific application) for both geotextiles and geosynthetic barriers is now available, although some of the barrier standards need to be urgently amended. These standards are being used or will be used for CE-marking, a legal requirement for entering the EU market.
- Experience acquired with the use of the standards will teach soon where the first generation of European standards will need improvement. For some standards the moment of the first five year review will come soon anyway.
- A growing number of standards has been developed under a parallel CEN/ISO system, the so-called Vienna Agreement. The rules of this agreement stipulate that revisions or amendments to these common EN ISO standards will be done under ISO lead. This will inevitably lead to a shift of work from CEN to ISO and a growing importance of international ISO standardisation.
- With most test method standards being under ISO supervision, the role of CEN standardisation will focus on product requirements standards.
Although the original work programme is now nearly completed, apart from some amendments and early revisions, there is still a need for further meetings. It was decided to meet next year in Norway on 18-19 May 2006.
A major topic on the agenda of that meeting will probably be the revision of the set of 10 geotextile requirement standards, which form the basis of legally mandatory product marking in Europe. These standards were published in 2001 and are now on the review list.
next review (July 2006)
