AFNOR designs and deploys standards-driven solutions to drive progress and build trustability.
The association performs its public-interest missions within the framework of a government decree to lead and coordinate the French standardization system, to defend French positions in European (CEN) and international (ISO) standardization agencies, and to draft and publish French standards.
The AFNOR affiliates - assessment, certification and training services and international network - operate in highly competitive marketplaces and lead their business by demonstrating the most stringent compliance with the governing market rules.

What is a standard?
A standard is an AFNOR-published reference document produced on demand and published by AFNOR with active input from a federative community of representative stakeholders (industry leaders, consumer groups, associations, unions, local authorities, and more). Through this iterative co-development process, a standard gives a set of core principles and key requirements on a process activity or performance outcomes.
At the close of 2013, there were 33,399 voluntary standards on catalogue, of which 1% have been made compulsory regulatory standards. The voluntary standards live and breathe: they get systematically revised at least every 5 years to keep them fresh, and it is the users involved who decide to continue, update or cancel the version. In 2013, 2,194 new standards were published, of which 1,250 were new updated versions. 1936 standards have been withdrawn from the collection.

• See the AFNOR website