9. Conclusion

More than ever, a description of the international, European and national standards system, and their links with regulations, enables us to assess the importance of this tool for today's industrial world. In the past, the aim pursued by all stakeholders was to make available to users documents drawn up by consensus and approved by a recognized body, providing, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, guaranteeing an optimum level of order in a given context (definition from – ISO/CEI Guide no. 2).

In a fast-paced world, it was also important to ensure that these documents were available before they became obsolete, and that the authors of these texts did not have to repeat the same task again and again, depending on the environment in which they found themselves.

The provisions implemented...