[en] The situation of particle physics today is quite puzzling. On the one hand, the Standard Model (SM) of strong and electroweak interactions is consistent with all confirmed experimental data but theoretically rather unsatisfactory. On the other hand, none of the many theoretical speculations which try to go beyond the SM has (yet) received the slightest experimental support. The solution to this dilemma can only come from new data: either from the detection of a new particle threshold at high energy colliders, or from the appearance of some small discrepancy in high-precision experiments. A crucial sector for testing the SM and its extensions is that of neutral currents (NC), where an impressive amount of data has been collected in recent years. While waiting for the next generation of experiments, it is certainly useful to take stock of our knowledge, determining the NC parameters as precisely as we can and putting limits on possible deviations from the SM. The present talk contains the results of a recent analysis along these lines: the first part illustrates how a set of 'model-independent' parameters can be extracted from the available NC data, the second part particularizes the analysis to the SM and to some superstring-inspired models with an additional Z' in their low-energy spectrum. 27 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab