All national standards and specifications are prepared by Technical Standardization Bodies of ELOT which are Sectoral Committees (SC), Technical Committees (TC), Working Groups (WG) and Special Working Groups (SWG). The operation rules for those Committees are described in the document “Regulation on the establishment and operation of Technical Standardization Bodies of ELOT”.
More than 1100 scientists actively participate in the standardization processes of ELOT, either as representatives of public or private sector or as experts.
For the development, public enquiry, approval and publication of national standards and specifications, ELOT has established and follows the document “Regulation on drafting and issue of Hellenic Standards and Specifications”.
Any interested party, a person or a legal entity of public or private sector, or even the state itself, may submit to ELOT a detailed and documented request/proposal for the development of a Hellenic standard/specification. The request is examined by ELOT, taking into consideration any existing applicable standards/specifications relevant to the subject matter of the proposal.
Where a Technical Committee or a Working Group on the subject matter of the proposal exists, the expression of opinion shall be assigned to it, otherwise it shall be addressed to the relevant interested parties.
The opinions expressed in accordance with the above are assessed by ELOT, who eventually, with an informed decision, accepts or rejects the request. The relevant decision shall take into account, on the one hand, the financial data relating to the development of the proposed new standard/specification, ensuring the source of funding for the development, and, on the other hand, the fact that the decision must be fully aligned with the existing policy and the specific decisions of the National Standardization Council, if any.
Where it is decided to develop a new standard/specification, a notification is carried out in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 1025/2012 and the corresponding procedures of the European Standardization Organizations.
The Hellenic draft standard/specification is prepared by a Sectorial or Technical Committee or Working Group in accordance with the “Regulations on the Establishment and Operation of Technical Standardization Bodies of ELOT”. If a Technical Committee or Working Group does not already exist, ELOT shall, in accordance with the above-mentioned Regulation, establish a new Sectoral or Technical Committee or Working Group.
ELOT has the responsibility of:
• the planning;
• the implementation of the draft standard/specification plan by the Sectorial or Technical Committee or Working Group; and
• the coding (ELOT code number assignment) in normative documents which are under development.
Once the first draft of the normative document is completed, it is subject to a process of widespread public enquiry for a certain period of time. The comments and observations submitted shall be collected at ELOT and forwarded to the relevant Sectorial or Technical Committee/Working Group for processing and assessment. After completing the assessment of the comments, the Committee/Working Group shall deliver to ELOT the final Hellenic draft standard for approval and publication, provided that the following conditions are met:
a)compatibility to the national standardization in general has been ensured;
b)any deviations from ELOT’s legislation or national, European and International obligations have been examined and identified;
c)the Technical Committee/Working Group has taken into account the comments or objections expressed on the draft standard during the public enquiry process;
d)the procedure for developing the standard/specification has been followed; and
e)any conflicting standards/specifications have been withdrawn.
Coding of standards
The Hellenic standards are coded with a serial number issued by the Standardization Department and the prefix ELOT, while the Hellenic specifications follow the serial number of the standards but bear the prefix ELOT TS.
