(Frankfurt am Main, October 21, 2026) No one checks a vehicle’s software or the safety of a wallbox before getting in. People rely on the fact that independent experts have already done so. Every day, we rely on technology that hardly any of us fully understand in detail. “Trust determines whether a technology finds its way into everyday life and becomes an innovation, or remains confined to the laboratory,” says Ansgar Hinz, CEO of the VDE Group. “But trust doesn’t arise on its own. It is based on transparent rules, traceable testing procedures, and jointly developed international standards.”
Standards reflect the current state of the art. They ensure that products function safely, are interoperable with one another, and are developed worldwide according to comparable requirements. In Germany, electrotechnical standardization is organized by the DKE—the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic, and Information Technologies (DKE)—which is supported by the VDE. Approximately 10,000 experts from industry, academia, government agencies, and associations volunteer their time there to contribute to standardization.
Trust Is the Focus of the IEC General Meeting
European and international standards are becoming increasingly important. Today, 85 percent of electrotechnical standards are already based on European or global standards. For this reason, the DKE, as the German standards organization, is also actively involved in CENELEC at the European level and in the IEC at the international level. The IEC General Meeting, taking place November 16–21 in Hamburg and organized by the DKE , also demonstrates just how international standardization has become. More information about the meeting, which is expected to draw up to 4,000 experts in electrical engineering standardization, is available here.
