d is organisation of meetings, co-ordination of activities of the Techni- immature and needs a trial period. cal Committees and Project Teams, for the administration of public From the date the Technical Assembly decides that ETSI should enquiry on draft standards, and for maintaining records and fin- produce a standard on a specific matter, and for the duration, not ances. The Director is the legal representative of the Institute, and exceeding fifteen months, the Technical Assembly sets down as holds the authority of the Chief Executive. being required to prepare and adopt that standard, no ETSI member is allowed to publish a new or revised national standard which is not completely in line with an ETS or EN in existence or in preparation 22.4.3.5 ETSI standards on the specific matter in question, or take any other action which could prejudice the harmonisation intended. This is termed the Technical Committees provide a forum for consensus building 'standstill' agreement. In addition, when ETSI has approved an ETS amongst European technical experts in developing new standards. on a specific topic then, on an agreed date set by the Technical They are also the focus for developing a harmonised European view Assembly, all ETSI members have to ensure that all conflicting on international standards, and consist of members of the Institute national standards on that specific matter are withdrawn. meeting on an ad hoc basis, as required. The Technical Committees In order to develop standards rapidly, sometimes when the tech- pass standards, prepared by Project Teams, to the Technical Assem- nology has not been completely developed, ETSI often adopts a bly for approval. Project Teams are created by the Technical Assem- 'working assumption' process. In this the Technical Committee, at bly for a defined task and limited time period. They consist of a the start of the development, draws up a proposal based on the best small number of experts in the field under study. estimate of the technology. Following this anyone can su