UN/EDIFACT
The international UN/EDIFACT standard is continuously developed and maintained to meet users' requirements. This is the responsibility of the United Nations, through UN/CEFACT, a committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE). Despite its name, the UN/ECE is a global body with representation from over 35 countries. UN/CEFACT manages the UN/EDIFACT standardisation programme in the context of trade facilitation initiatives, which improve the movement of goods and services trade.
UN/EDIFACT website -
www.unece.org
UN/CEFACT website -
www.unece.org
Entry points which provide a focus to UN/EDIFACT activities within a given area or region-have been established to provide development activities for feeding into the UN system. To date, entry points have been established in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the US.
The European entry point is managed by the European Board for EDIFACT Standards (EBES) and is a representative example of the other entry points.
EBES
EBES provides the advisory and support team for the UN/EDIFACT Rapporteur for Europe, and is an associated body of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). It consists of the:
- Board - which develops and directs policy, monitors and regulates the work of EBES, and ensures adequate resources and control are provided for UN/EDIFACT developments;
- Management Bureau - which provides strategic advise to the Board;
- Technical Co-ordinating Committee - which reports to the Management Bureau they co-ordinate the work of the Message Development Groups;
- Technical Assessment Group - which provide the technical assessment of data maintenance requests.
There are also a number of support groups and special interest groups. The former are responsible for co-ordinating the more formal aspects of message standardisation in a given sector, such as finance or healthcare. The latter deal with horizontal issues such as security.