At the turn of the 20th century national standards institutes were formed to standardize and regulate the dimensions and properties of ‘standard’ steel sections.
Though they operated independently within their own jurisdictions, there was cooperation among the bodies to ensure that the characteristics and properties of the various steel sections were consistent, enabling the various products to comply to what is today international standards.
The earliest standards organizations were the ‘American Society for Testing of Materials’ (ASTM) formed in 1898. followed by the ‘British Standards Institute’ (BSI) in 1901. The resulting standards were to a great extent adopted internationally and formed the basis for numerous standards institutes.
In 1953, the first steps were taken to prepare international standards with the formation of the ‘Coordinating Commission for the Nomenclature of Iron and Steel Products’ (COCOR). Between its creation and 1986 it created about 200 reference documents, called ‘Euro-norms’ (EN) most of which served as a basis for the preparation of the existing European Standards in this sector. Since 1986, the standardization of iron and steel products in Europe has been conducted by the European Committee for Iron and Steel Standardization (ECISS).
ECISS is an independent body and an Associated Standards Body of CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation) – (European Committee for Standardization), the standardization program of which is financially supported by the European Commission (EC) and EFTA (European Free Trade Association). It is linked to CEN for administrative and legal purposes. ECISS operates according to its own Internal Regulations. It is managed by a Coordinating Commission (COCOR) and is serviced by a central secretariat employed by CEN, but reporting directly to COCOR.
ECISS aims at producing standards on the definition, classification, testing, analysis and technical delivery requirements of the products of the iron and steel industry. ECISS objective is to have these standards implemented as national standards by its members.
ECISS Members come from the national standards bodies of the EC and EFTA countries, which are also CEN members and want to collaborate with ECISS. Each ECISS member may be represented in COCOR by a COCOR delegation comprising a maximum of three delegates: representing their national standards body, their producers and their users. Work items to be included in the work program may be proposed by ECISS and CEN members, the EC, EFTA and other European organizations.
The members of (CEN) are the National Standardization Bodies of 34 European countries – including all the member states of the European Union (EU) and other countries that are part of the European Single Market
The following tables list the current member states subscribing to (CEN):
| Acronym | Country | Standards Organization |
| UNMZ | Czech Republic | Czech Office of Standards Metrology and Testing |
| UNMS | Slovakia | Slovak Office of Standards Metrology and Testing |
| UNI | Italy | Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione |
| UNE | Spain | Asociación Española de Normalización |
| TSE | Turkey | Turkish Standards Institution |
| SNV | Switzerland | Schweizerische Normen-Vereinigung |
| SN | Norway | Standards Norway |
| SIST | Slovenia | Slovenian Institute for Standardization |
| SIS | Sweden | Swedish Standards Institute |
| SFS | Finland | Suomen Standardisoimisliitto r.y. |
| PKN | Poland | Polish Committee for Standardization |
| UNMZ | Czech Republic | Czech Office of Standards Metrology and Testing |
| UNMS | Slovakia | Slovak Office of Standards Metrology and Testing |
| UNI | Italy | Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione |
| UNE | Spain | Asociación Española de Normalización |
| TSE | Turkey | Turkish Standards Institution |
| SNV | Switzerland | Schweizerische Normen-Vereinigung |
| SN | Norway | Standards Norway |
| SIST | Slovenia | Slovenian Institute for Standardization |
| SIS | Sweden | Swedish Standards Institute |
| SFS | Finland | Suomen Standardisoimisliitto r.y. |
| PKN | Poland | Polish Committee for Standardization |
| NSAI | Ireland | National Standards Authority of Ireland |
| NQIS/ELOT | Greece | National Quality Infrastructure System |
| NEN | Netherlands | Nederlands Normalisatie-instituut |
| NBN | Belgium | Bureau de Normalisation/Bureau voor Normalisatie |
| MSZT | Hungary | Hungarian Standards Institution |
| MCCAA | Malta | The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority |
| LVS | Latvia | Latvian Standard Ltd. |
| LST | Lithuania | Lithuanian Standards Board |
| IST | Iceland | Icelandic Standards |
| ISS | Serbia | Institute for Standardization of Serbia |
| ISRM | Macedonia | Standardization Institute of the Republic of Macedonia |
| IPQ | Portugal | Instituto Português da Qualidade |
| ILNAS | Luxembourg | Organisme Luxembourgeois de Normalisation |
| HZN | Croatia | Croatian Standards Institute |
| EVS | Estonia | Estonian Centre for Standardisation |
| DS | Denmark | Dansk Standard |
| DIN | Germany | Deutsches Institut für Normung |
| CYS | Cyprus | Cyprus Organization for Standardisation |
| BSI | United Kingdom | British Standards Institute |
| BDS | Bulgaria | Bulgarian Institute for Standardization |
| ASRO | Romania | Romanian Standards Association |
| ASI | Austria | Austrian Standards Institute |
| AFNO | France | Association Française de Normalisation |