OREANDA-NEWS. EC Takes Steps to Modernise EU's Standardisation Policy.

Why are standards important and why is further EU action necessary?

Standards are technical specifications that define requirements for products, production processes, services or test-methods, ensuring they are fit for purpose and guarantee high quality and safety throughout the relevant processes. Standards are voluntary and market driven, agreed in consensus by industry and other stakeholders.

They are a flexible way of raising quality and safety of products and services, improving transparency, reducing costs, opening up markets for businesses and ensuring that companies, especially SMEs, can compete on an equal footing. Standards are at the heart of innovation and industrial leadership and the functioning of the single market. Standards are a key tool for knowledge dissemination, ensuring interoperability, validation of novel ideas and a driver for innovation.

The standardisation environment is changing because the economy is changing, as a result of new technologies and the progressive integration of digital solutions in industrial global value chains, as well as the fast moving international context. Today, standardisation is more and more done at global level. The European Standardisation System (ESS) needs to respond effectively to the rapidly evolving needs of industry, society, consumers and other stakeholders, to ensure that Europe remains the global hub for standardisation. Standards are strategic assets for securing EU competitiveness.

What is the Commission proposing?

As announced in the Single Market Strategy, the Commission intends to modernise the ESS, in cooperation with the industry, the European Standardisation Organisations, SMEs and all other interested parties. In the package adopted today, the Commission sets out its vision for a single and coherent European Standardisation System that adapts to the changing environment, supports multiple policies and brings benefits and predictability to consumers and businesses. The package includes:

- a Joint Initiative on Standardisation(JIS): an innovative dialogue process which brings together European and national standardisation organisations and bodies, industry and their associations, SMEs, consumer associations, trade unions, environmental organisations, Member States, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the Commission. It will be formally endorsed by all partners on 13 June in Amsterdam under the auspices of the Dutch Presidency of the EU. The renewed partnership will develop concrete actions to better prioritise, speed up and streamline standardisation work by the end of 2019, and ensure early inclusion of relevant stakeholders.

- European services standards: guidance to promote the development of voluntary European service standards, reduce obstacles stemming from national standards and certification schemes, and improve information to service providers.

- inter-institutional dialogue: a system of annual reporting to and feedback from the other European institutions on the implementation of the EU standardisation policy and the contribution of European standards to EU policies in general and competitiveness, jobs and growth in particular.

- the Annual Union Work Programme for 2017: sets out the priorities in European standardisation for the next year.