NBN " Bureau voor Normalisatie/Bureau de Normalisation" is the Belgian national standards body, responsible for the drafting and publication of standards in Belgium.
The Belgian Standards Body was created by the Standardization Act of 3 April 2003 (published in the Belgian Official Gazette of 27 May 2003). It is a public organization with a legal personality, that has taken the place of the former Institut belge de normalization (IBN/BIN).
The objective of the Standardization Act is to decentralize standardization activities, by entrusting them to so-called "sectorial operators". In order to be recognized as sectorial operators, candidates have to satisfy a number of objective criteria (laid down in the Royal Decree of 21 October 2004).
This transfer of key tasks to sectorial operators that are competent as well as representative of the domains concerned, has given a new drive to standardization in Belgium. It has also enhanced the participation of the Belgian industry in standardization, by improving the contact between the sectorial operators and the different branches of industry.
The standardization activities of NBN take place at national, European and world level. One of the aims of the organization is to stay as close as possible to International standards.
