From the Draft to the valid Standard

If the Working Group of the ISO/TC or SC has agreed upon a Committee Draft (CD), the responsible mirror bodies of the national standards organisations involved submit their comments on this Draft within three months.

If agreement is reached to present a proposal to public discussion, ISO will initiate a public enquiry on the basis of an International Draft Standard (DIS). Within five months, the ISO members can submit their national comments on the item. 

The national mirror body can decide to implement the furture International Standard - on a voluntary basis - in Austria as ÖNORM ISO. In this case, a relevant Draft ÖNORM ISO will be published as soon as possible in German language.

In case of parallel enquiry as specified by the "Vienna Agreement" between the European Committee for Standardization CEN and the International Organization for Standardization ISO, the Draft will be submitted to public enquiry as ÖNORM EN ISO. Based on the comments of experts participating in the national mirror bodies and on comments received from the public, national comments on the Draft International Standad will be presented to ISO.

Taking into account these national comments, the responsible Working Group of ISO/TC or SC prepares a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS). The ISO members then decide within a two-months final voting procedure on the adoption as International Standard.

The FDIS can be adopted or (mentioning the reasons) rejected. Abstention from vote is also possible. For valid adoption, two-thirds of the P-Members of the responsible ISO/TC or SC participating in the voting procedure have to agree; in addition, the number of negative votes must not exceed one quarter of the total votes expressed.

In case of a positive voting result, ISO will publish the International Standard in English and French languages. ISO members are not obliged to implement the International Standard in their country, i.e. the ISO members are free to implement it unchanged, with modifications or not at all.

Excepted are those International Standards which have been prepared according to the "Vienna Agreement". These International Standards have also the status of a European Standard and have to be, therefore, implemented unchanged on national level by those ISO members that are also CEN members (e.g. in Austria as ÖNORM EN ISO); conflicting national standards have to be withdrawn.