An instrument of deregulation

Standards not only benefit the private sector and consumers, but also relieve the State of its responsibility for drawing up detailed technical requirements. They also protect the citizen from overly rigid laws. In its laws and regulations, the State refers to standards for the technical details necessary to comply with essential requirements.

At national level

National laws lay down the legal framework and set protection targets, while consensus-based standards describe in detail the means of achieving those targets. Standards reflect the state of the art because they are regularly reviewed by experts to adjust for new developments - at DIN, this review takes place at least every five years. Thus, technical regulation is delegated to those most suited: Experts from industry and other stakeholder groups. In this way standardization contributes greatly to much-desired deregulation.

Examples:

• German Länder building regulations
• Pollution control regulations
• The German Product Safety Act (ProdSG)
• Energy efficiency regulations 

At European level

The aim of the EU's "New Approach" is to harmonize technical standardization within Europe. It is a central pillar of the internal market and applies to over 30 European Directives. According to the New Approach, European Directives specify essential safety and health requirements which are then given more technical detail in the harmonized European Standards mandated by the European Commission. These European Standards are implemented at national level. Users of a harmonized standard can presume that they meet the essential requirements of the respective directive ("presumption of conformity").