The Cyprus Organisation for Standardisation, or CYS (), is the national standardisation body of Cyprus, whose principal activity is the production of standards and the supply of standards-related services.

Introduction 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,CEN Members | www.cen.eu CENELEC,CENELEC Members | www.cenelec.eu ETSIETSI Members | www.etsi.org ) as well as broader standards organisations ISOISO members | www.iso.org and IEC.

Through its active participation in European and broader standardisation, CYS promotes Cypriot national interests through issuing and application of standards.Official CYS website | www.cys.org.cy

History of standardisation

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 . 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.Cyprus Copper Ingot | Celebrating World Standards Day 2012

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).

Cyprus national standards 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:CYS Procedures and Regulations

CYSCypriot national standards, developed primarily for the specific needs of the Cypriot society and economy CYS ENAdopted European standards published by CEN and CENELEC CYS ISOAdopted ISO standards CYS IECAdopted IEC standards CYS EN ISOISO 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.

CYS mirror and technical standardisation committees 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.

+ Business sectorsNumber Title 01 Agriculture, Food and Feed 02 Chemicals, Metals and Plastics 03 Construction and Buildings 04 Electrotechnical 05 Energy 06 Environment 07 Healthcare 08 Information Communication Technologies 09 Management, Quality and Conformity Assessment 10 Mechanical and Machines 11 Occupational and Consumers Health & Safety 12 Physical Security and Fire Safety 13 Services 14 Sustainability 15 Transport and Packaging

+ Technical committees Designation TitleCYS/TC 1 Building lime CYS/TC 2 Aggregates CYS/TC 4 Bricks CYS/TC 5 Natural stones CYS/TC 6 Concrete CYS/TC 8 Plastics piping systems CYS/TC 13 Solar thermal systems CYS/TC 14 Precast concrete products CYS/TC 15 Concrete reinforcement steel CYS/TC 16 Playground, waterparks and go-karts safety CYS/TC 17 Asphalt concrete CYS/TC 18 Eurocodes CYS/TC 20 Doors and windows CYS/TC 21 Cyprus Lefkara embroideryLefkaritiko CYS/TC 22 Hydrocarbons CYS/TC 23 Translation and adoption of the BS 7671 CYS/TC 24 Gender equality in the workplace CYS/TC 25 Fythkiotiko yfanto CYS/TC 26 Circular plastic products CYS/TC 27 Climate neutralitycarbon sequestration from tree planting CYS/TC 28 Mountaineering and hiking trails CYS/TC 29 Climate neutral cities and communities 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.

Centre for information and customer service 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 salein hardcopy and electronic formall the standards of many organisations: the global ISO and IEC, the European CEN and CENELEC, and the national BSI, , CYS, and DIN.

References

External links

CENEuropean Committee for Standardization CENELECEuropean Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization ETSIEuropean Telecommunications Standards Institute ISOInternational Organization for Standardization IECInternational Electrotechnical Commission