7. Design rules for steel construction

7.1 Background on the origin of Eurocodes

As early as 1980, the Commission of the European Communities entrusted groups of experts with the task of drawing up a set of draft Eurocodes. In 1990, the Commission decided to transfer to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) responsibility for completing the elaboration of Eurocodes in the form of standards. An ad hoc committee, CEN/TC 250, was set up to monitor and steer this work.

It was agreed to initially publish the Eurocodes as pre-standards or experimental standards (ENV), so that their voluntary experimental...