Standards and legislation
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and Estonian Centre for Standardisation and Accreditation have compiled the guideline, which contains reccomendations and explanations of using and referencing Standards in legislation. Download guideline:
How to use and reference Standards to support regulations | 308 KB | PDF
Standards are voluntary documents, the following of which is never essentially mandatory. Following a standard can be made mandatory to everyone in exceptional cases only by referencing standards in legislation.
In Estonia, the referencing of standards in legislation is regulated by the Product Conformity Act🡭. Pursuant to this, the legal act could contain a reference to a standard that is either
- recommended or mandatory,
- direct or general.
In Estonian legal act, a standard shall generally be referenced by using the recommended reference, in the case of which following the referenced standard is not mandatory and the requirements of legal act can be implemented with other solutions as well (except some other standard).
Mandatory or recommended referencing
Mandatory referencing requires everyone whose activities are regulated with a relevant legal act to follow the requirements of the referenced standard. A mandatory reference can only be made in the cases specified in the Product Conformity Act🡭.
For example: Whole-body vibration is measured on three orthogonal axes, taking into account the position of the worker's body and the location of the vibration source, with one of the measurement directions being along the body (z-axis), the others being transverse from back to front (x-axis) and from side to side (y-axis). The measurements must meet the requirements of the EVS-ISO 2631-1 standard.
Recommended referencing does not require the following of the standard’s requirements, although adhering to such standards often provides a feeling of confidence that the requirements of legal act are being followed as a result of adherence to the standard or that some other advantages can be gained (e.g. simpler conformity assessment procedure).
For example: It is presumed that if the professional competence assessment procedure is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the EVS-EN ISO/IEC 17011 standard or equivalent, the assessment procedure meets the requirements of the Regulation.
Dated or undated referencing
A dated reference means that the reference of a referred standard includes the year of adoption. If a dated reference is used, only the referenced edition shall be valid, not taking into account later new editions and amendments.
For example: A vehicle of category N must have a partitioning system or, in its absence, securing devices in accordance with ISO 27956:2009 for securing the load.
An undated reference is a reference without the year, in the case of which the referenced standard’s newest edition and its possible amendments are valid.
For example: When providing information about product size, it is recommended to refer to the Estonian standard EVS-EN 13402 or another equivalent standard, and when providing care instructions, it is recommended to refer to the Estonian standard EVS-EN ISO 3758 or another equivalent standard.
Direct or general referencing
A direct reference to a standard includes the standard’s reference and it is always unambiguously clear which standard needs to be followed.
For example: In products that contain less than 15% by mass of VOCs and do not contain a reactive diluent, the VOC content is determined according to the method described in the EVS-EN ISO 11890-2 standard.
A general reference refers to standards accepted by a certain standardisation organisation or determined under other grounds and such a reference does not include standard’s reference. To find out which standards were referred to with that reference, it is recommended to search for standards based on the ICS group.
For example: It is presumed that the technical requirements of the investigation and the requirements of the investigation report have been met if the current standard for conducting geotechnical and geological investigations of an Estonian, European or international standards organisation has been followed.