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Interview with Wolfgang Klasen, Germany

Wolfgang Klasen was the Head of Delegation for Germany at the TC 292 plenary in Sydney. He is also the convenor of Working Group 4.

Isotc292online.org: You are a member of Germany’s mirror committee to TC 292. Can you briefly introduce your NSB and mirror committee, please?  Wolfgang Klasen

HoD: Coming from history, that ISO/TC 292 was set up by combining 3 different existing TCs, we have in Germany not only one but 4 mirror committees in the following areas:

  • Fire Fighting and Fire Protection Standards Committee (FNFW) – for WG 3 and WG 5
  • Services Standards Committee (NADL) – for WG 6
  • Information Technology and selected IT Applications (NIA) – for WG 4
  • Standards Committee for Organizational Processes (NA Org) – for WG 2 and WG 6

And experts from all of the national mirror committees are reviewing and contributing to WG 1 / ISO 22300

Isotc292online.org: Who are the key stakeholders of Security and resilience in Germany?

HoD: Stakeholders from all areas of business and government. We have professional fire fighters and other organizations of civil protection/disaster control and emergency management, universities, industry, government, SMEs, consumer protection, depending on the topic the stakeholder distribution is different.

Isotc292online.org: ISO/TC 292 covers a broad spectrum of standards. In what areas are Germany’s main interests in the committee?

HoD: As already mentioned, Germany is active in all of the working groups, e.g. for mirroring the BCM work we recently founded a new mirror committee that combines experts from Fire Fighting and Fire Protection and from Organizational Processes

Isotc292online.org: How do you work currently in these areas (e.g.: are there any laws, regulations, national standards or other rules?) and how can ISO standards help?

HoD: Generally spoken, ISO standards help in every situation, where there is a need for common understanding and no agreements in place, especially in emergency management it is essential to have a common understanding beyond local boundaries and transnationally for working together in responding to incidents

Isotc292online.org: So far have you adopted any standards developed by ISO/TC 292 as a national standard in Germany?

HoD: As we have in Europe the CEN/TC 391, that is continuously adopting ISO/TC 292 standards on European level, we have also adopted these standards on national level, this is a very long list, starting from ISO 22300, including the BCM-standards (22301 and 22313, which will also be revised in parallel to ISO work under Vienna agreement), a full list of adopted standards can be found on the ISO webpage

Isotc292online.org: How does your mirror committee involve itself in standard development at present and how do you see this developing in the future?

HoD: With regard to the evolving importance, we encourage on German level additional experts to ensure a better contribution to ISO work. The different German mirror committees provide ideas for new projects; they are also providing the resources for the secretariats work in WG 3 and WG 4

Isotc292online.org: What advice can you give to interested parties in Germany who want to offer their input to the work of ISO/TC 292 and your mirror committee and who should they address? 

HoD: DIN provides information and encourages German experts to participate through the national mirror committees in international work. DIN provides at national level support and the experts can socialize with the work on national level, exchanging with already experienced experts who are already working with ISO projects. Interested parties should contact DIN at https://www.din.de/de/mitwirken/mitarbeit-in-der-normung to be routed to the relevant mirror committee.

Additionially, DIN provides translated versions of selected standards already in the DIS-ballot stage, so that experts who even do not work with standardization can contribute via the website to the current ballots, the national mirror committees include these comments in the German vote to the respective DIS

Isotc292online.org: Possible projects?  

HoD: Closer co-operation is planned with the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) who work with UNISDR on the Sendai Framework

Interview made by Linley Biblow, Canada and member of the ISO/TC 292 Communication Group