Cyprus Organisation for Standardisation

Since January 2005 it is autonomous from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, and operates under The 2002 Law for Standardisation, Accreditation and Technical Regulation.

The sole shareholder of CYS is the Minister of Finance who appoints, for a three-year term, its seven-member board of directors representing the major national stakeholders for quality issues: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Tourism, Employers Federation, Chamber of Commerce, Technical Chamber, Consumers Association and Academia.

CYS is a full member of European standards organisations (ESO's – CEN,[1] CENELEC,[2] ETSI[3]) as well as broader standards organisations ISO[4] and IEC.

Through its active participation in European and broader standardisation, CYS promotes Cypriot national interests through issuing and application of standards.[5]

Archaeological evidence indicates the use of standards in Cyprus began in ancient times. Copper oxhide ingots (ingots of copper in the shape of a cow hide) were seen in Cyprus between the 16th and 12th centuries BC. During this period Cypriot copper manufacturers designed a standard shape for the copper ingots to facilitate handling, transport and storage. In addition, most of the ingots had a standard weight of 25 kg. Furthermore, Cypriot producers introduced a marking system using Cypro-Minoan script to indicate that the ingots were made from Cypriot mines that followed standard procedures of production and quality control.[6]

Standards started being used nationally in the field of public works (road and building construction) at the beginning of the 20th century with the implementation of British standards during colonial administration and continued after the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960.

Standardisation was made more systematic in the mid 1970s with legislation (N.68/75) establishing the Cyprus Organisation for Standards and Control of Quality.

In 2002, through the Standardisation, Accreditation and Technical Information Law (N.156(I)/2002), the activities of standardisation have been allocated to the Cyprus Certification Company, which is now known as the Cyprus Organisation for Standardisation (CYS).[5]

CYS, as a full member of CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, has the obligation to adopt all European Norms (ENs) issued. Furthermore, in case an ISO or other national standard (e.g. BS, DIN etc.) is proven necessary for the national market CYS has the authority to adopt the standard as national, in collaboration with the issuing standardisation body.

In general, the name of a CYS standard shows its origin:[9]

• CYS – Cypriot national standards, developed primarily for the specific needs of the Cypriot society and economy
• CYS EN – Adopted European standards published by CEN and CENELEC
• CYS ISO – Adopted ISO standards
• CYS IEC – Adopted IEC standards
• CYS EN ISO – ISO standards that have been adopted as European standards and therefore as Cypriot

There are only 31 valid purely national standards, as the majority were withdrawn due to the existence of equivalent or superseding European standards.

In order to facilitate the dissemination and application of European standards, CYS has divided standardisation into 15 business sectors, each of which includes several sub-categories.

CYS sets up technical committees for the creation of national standards.

Both, mirror and technical committees monitor their respective standardisation activities at the international and European levels and consult CYS accordingly, e.g. if standards need to be withdrawn, the preparation of national annexes or the development of supplementary standards.

To facilitate the operation of the committees, CYS has been working with ISO to provide an electronic platform, Livelink, where members can exchange information and manage the respective committees at minimum effort and cost.[5]

The CYS centre for information and customer service provides full access to all international, European, and national standards and is open to the public in order to provide all relevant information.

It offers the possibility of reading, studying and purchasing standards. Furthermore, it provides free access to users in international databases of standards like Perinorm.

CYS makes available for sale – in hardcopy and electronic form – all the standards of many organisations: the global ISO and IEC, the European CEN and CENELEC, and the national BSI, ΕΛΟΤ, CYS, and DIN.

1. CEN – European Committee for Standardization
2. CENELEC – European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization Archived 2012-12-21 at the Wayback Machine
3. ETSI – European Telecommunications Standards Institute
4. ISO – International Organization for Standardization
5. IEC – International Electrotechnical Commission