The Agreement governs the close cooperation between the International Organization for Standardization (IEC) and its European counterpart, CENELEC. The Frankfurt Agreement builds upon the Dresden Agreement from 1996 and develops its content. The Dresden Agreement introduced the parallel voting procedure. This implies the adoption of internationally elaborated standards as European Standards. Now, over 80 % of all European electrotechnical standards are of international origin and are equivalent to the IEC standards. "The Frankfurt Agreement reaffirms the primacy of international standardization. The Agreement is a further important step towards harmonizing European standards with their international equivalents. It boosts the competitiveness of European industry in the global market," said Dr. Bernhard Thies. The Agreement also helps to avoid duplication of work, to reduce the amount of time spent on the development of standards, and to make effective use of the knowledge of European and IEC experts.
The main innovation in the Frankfurt Agreement is the introduction of the abbreviation "IEC" in the names of all European standards which are identical to IEC standards. The changes in the European legal framework (European Regulation no. 1025/2012) and the digitized work platforms have also been adopted.
