Is there a difference between the SS EN and the BS EN standard?

People often wonder if there's an difference between copies of a particular EN standard from let's say the British Standards Institute BSI (BS EN) and the Swedish Standards Institute SIS (SS EN).  Actually, if you get the English language edition, the German language edition or the French language edition from any country in Europe, the EN standard will be identical.

Why?  When EN standards are developed (by CEN, CENELEC and ETSI), they are provided to all the member countries in three languages -- English, French and German.  BSI has the right to print the "official" English language edition, DIN the German and AFNOR the French.  But all countries have the right to publish any of the three editions too.  And they all use the same files provided to them by EN.

Some people used to complain that some nations published in English quickly and some slowly.  That's not a problem for most national standards bodies these days.  Although sometimes the Germans do take longer than the others, since they have a strict adoption protocol, very thorough!

If you do need a publication in another language, you may be able to find it from the national standards body where that language is in use.  But most people prefer to use the English language editions since some material can be highly technical.

However, in the end, it doesn't matter at all which EN edition you choose to use. As long as it's one of those 3 languages, the content is always the same.