COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE The annual Union work programme for European standardisation for 2016
Date: 2016-01-08
Institutions: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, energy policy, information technology industry, innovation, intellectual property, international cooperation, service, single market, standardisation

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 8.1.2016  COM(2015) 686 final   COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE The annual Union work programme for European standardisation for 2016 {SWD(2015) 301 final}  
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

European standardisation is the cornerstone of the functioning of the internal market. 
The  positive  effects  of  standardisation  are  well  known  and  recognised.  It  is  a  key 
action  of  the  Single  Market  Strategy 1  and  is  also  part  of  several  other  policy 
initiatives, including the Industrial Policy2 and the Digital Single Market Strategy3. 

The  Commission  set  its  strategic  vision  for  European  standardisation  in  the 
Commission  Communication  for  standards4and  set  out  the  legal  framework  in  the 
Regulation  on  European  standardisation 5  (hereinafter  referred 
to  as  "the 
Regulation"), that has been in force since 1 January 2013. 

One of the novelties of the Regulation is the obligation for the Commission to adopt 
an  annual  Union  work  programme  for  European  standardisation,  identifying 
strategic  priorities  for  European  standardisation  reflecting  the  policy  objectives  set 
by the Commission in its own planning. 

The  annual  Union  work  programme  (AUWP)  is  a  tool  to  improve  the  cooperation 
between the Commission and the European standardisation system (ESS) by setting 
out  the  Commission's  vision  and  plans  for  the  following  year  as  regards 
standardisation: actions are proposed to ESS actors in this context. 

As  highlighted  in  the  Single  Market  Strategy,  standardisation  is  crucial  to  support 
efficiently  the  Commission’s  priorities  in  particular  to:  create  growth  for  our 
economy  and  jobs  for  our  citizens,  enhance  the  connected  digital  market,  form  a 
resilient  energy  Union  and  further  improve  the  internal  market  with  a  strengthened 
industrial  base,  the  EU  being  a  stronger  global  actor  and  the  negotiator  of  a 
reasonable and balanced EU-US trade agreement.  

For standardisation to properly support these priorities in the coming years, alongside 
the  regular  requests  for  standard  setting,  the  Commission  intends  to  revisit  its 
partnership with the ESS to ensure that it suitably meets the involvement needs of all 
stakeholders (industry, SMEs, consumers, environmental organisations, workers…). 

In  2015,  the  Commission  concluded  a  number  of  important  assessment  and 
evaluation  activities  regarding  the  standardisation  framework.  Therefore,  for  2016 
the  AUWP  starts  by  giving  account  of  the  results  of  the  various  activities  and 
measures  to  improve  the  implementation  of  the  Regulation  (section  2).  Then  it 
reports on the planned 2016 standardisation requests indicating their contribution to 
achieving  the  Commission's  policy  priorities  (section  3):  the  detailed  requests  are 
then  listed  in  the  annex.  Finally,  it  covers  and  updates  the  content  of  a  number  of 
important  topics  resulting  from  the  Regulation  and  already  present  in  previous 
AUWPs such as inclusiveness, international cooperation, IPR and research, financial 
and operational issues. In those areas, the Commission identifies also certain points 
on  which  a  higher  degree  of  involvement  of  other  members  of  the  European 
standardisation community would be needed. 

The  orientations  indicated  in  the  work  programme  do  not  have  a  budgetary  impact 
over and above what is already foreseen for the year 2016.  

1 COM(2015)550 
2 COM(2010)614 and COM(2012)582 
3 COM(2015)192 
4 COM(2011)311 
5 Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012  

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2. 

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION 

2.1. 

Article 24 of the Regulation 

Article 24(3) of the Regulation stipulates that by 31 December 2015 and every five 
years  thereafter,  the  Commission  shall  present  a  report  to  the  European  Parliament 
and to the Council on the implementation of this Regulation. 

The  Commission  has  in  particular  to  take  into  account  that  Article  24  of  the 
Regulation  foresees  a  number  of  reports  that  the  ESOs  and  European  stakeholder 
organisations  receiving  funding  have  to  submit  in  order to  ensure transparency  and 
increased participation of the wide standardisation community.  

On  the  basis  of  the  report  called  by  Art.  24(3),  the  Commission  will  make  an 
assessment  of  potential  new  measures  to  simplify  the  financing  of  European 
standardisation  and 
the  European 
Standardisation Organisations. 

the  administrative  burden  for 

to  reduce 

2.1.1. 

Independent Review of the European Standardisation System (ESS)6 
Furthermore,  action  29  of  the  Communication  for  standards4,  requested  the 
Commission  to  undertake  an  'Independent  Review  of  the  European  Standardisation 
System (ESS)', that was tasked to an external independent consultant (Ernst & Young, 
E&Y). The overall purpose of the Independent Review is to measure and assess if the 
five  strategic  objectives  of  this  Communication  are  being  achieved  (speed  of  the 
process,  tool  for  competitiveness,  support  EU  policies,  inclusiveness  of  societal 
stakeholders  and  global  impact)  to  evaluate  the  performance  of  the  ESS  and  to 
formulate recommendations to improve the current system.  

The  results  of  the  Independent  Review  were  publicly  discussed  and  disclosed:  the 
outcome of the discussions will be taken into account in the report of the Article 24 
of the Regulation. 

2.2. 

A Joint initiative on Standardisation 

The  Single  Market  Strategy  foresees  for  the  modernisation  of  the  standardisation 
system  that  the  Commission  will  propose  and  agree  a  ‘Joint  initiative  on 
Standardisation’  with  the  European  standardisation  community.  The  public  and 
private partners to the Joint initiative will take a joint commitment on what results to 
deliver  when  and  how  in  support  of  the  priorities  of  the  President  Juncker 
Commission. The Commission will address issues such as priority areas for standard 
development (ICT, services, energy, mobility, etc.), novel and collaborative ways of 
establishing  standards,  transparent  and  inclusive  processes  for  adopting  standards, 
coherent  and  strong  public  sector  support  throughout  the  standardisation  process  , 
enhanced  knowledge  management  throughout  the  standardisation  process,  a  joint 
strategy  on  making  Europe  a  global  standardisation  hub  and  address  issues  arising 
from market fragmentation in field of services and servitisation. Furthermore the Joint 
initiative  will  link  research  and  innovation  priorities  to  the  standardisation  process  to 
enable  a  timely  start  of  standardisation  activities.  The  Joint  initiative  should  be 
concluded in the first half of 2016. 

6 http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/12202/attachments/1/translations/en/renditions/native  

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2.3. 

Vademecum on European Standardisation 
The  Commission  revised  in  2015  the  Vademecum  on  European  standardisation  in 
order to align with the reforms brought by the Regulation and the Communication for 
standards4. 

The Vademecum also sets guidelines for the European Standardisation Organisations 
(ESOs)  to  ensure  appropriate  transparency  and  inclusiveness  during  execution  of 
Commission requests.  

The  Commission  invites  the  ESOs  to  train  their  technical  bodies  in  applying  these 
new  guidelines  to  ensure  practical  implementation  of  these  guidelines  in  particular 
when developing and revising harmonised standards.    

3. 

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES FOR EUROPEAN STANDARDISATION 

3.1. 

ICT Standardisation 

The  Communication  on  the  Digital  Single  Market  (DSM)  Strategy  of  6  May  2015 
includes the adoption of a “Priority ICT Standards Plan” to identify and define key 
priorities for ICT standardisation with a focus on the technologies and domains that 
are  deemed  to  be  critical  to  the  Digital  Single  Market,  including  essential  sectoral 
interoperability and standards. The Plan will be adopted in the first half of 2016. 

The  Priority  ICT  Standards  Plan  will  complement  the  Annual  Union  Work 
Programme.  

Timely ICT standardisation actions are expected to reduce market fragmentation by 
increasing 
therefore 
interoperability  of  products,  systems  and  services  and 
contributing to the competitiveness of European firms of all sizes, including SMEs.  

Leveraging  the  single  market  can  ease  access  to  global  markets  by  promoting 
European  developed  standards  worldwide  as  shown  with  the  GSM,  Digital  Video 
Broadcasting and other success cases. 

As indicated in the DSM communication an increased effort is needed to ensure that 
standardisation deliverables keep pace with changes in technologies.  

The next step for ICT standardisation will be to: 

Find an efficient and effective way to identify the sectors and technologies that 

- 
are critical for the DSM and 

Select key priority ICT standardisation actions that are needed in those sectors 

- 
and technologies. 

To  achieve  this,  the  Commission  is  acting  and  has  launched  consultations  with 
stakeholders. 

Several already existing instruments will support this approach. The Rolling Plan for 
ICT  Standardisation  is  a  work  programme  that  is  arranged  by  topic,  linking  EU 
policies  to  standardisation  activities.  It  is  established  in  collaboration  with  the 
European  Multi-Stakeholder  Platform  on  ICT,  which  includes  both  European  and 
worldwide  standardisation  stakeholders,  and  represents  a  comprehensive  and 
accurate situation of ICT standardisation.  

4 

 
 
The  ICT  standardisation  Rolling  plan  is  consistent  with  this  annual  Union  work 
programme  and  is  published  yearly  on  the  website  of  the  Directorate-General  for 
Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs 7. 

3.2. 

Services Standardisation 

Unlike  goods  and  ICT,  the  development  of  services  standards  has  been  limited 
especially at the EU level. As a result, service standards account for only 2% of all 
European standards.  

There is however potential for greater use of European service standards. Voluntary 
service standards could help tap the unexploited potential  of the services sector for 
the EU economy by improving the performance and quality of the services, ensuring 
interoperability and facilitating cooperation between economic operators.  

The  importance  of  European  services  standards  is  also  likely  to  increase  in  the 
coming  years  as  the  line  between  goods  and  services  blurs  (servitisation).  In  such 
cases,  a  restriction  to  the  provision  of  either  the  good  or  the  service  in  practice 
becomes a restriction to the sale of the whole. To prevent this restriction, European 
service standards could be needed to complement the goods standards.  

In  addition,  as  the  overall  number  of  national  service  standards  increase  and 
mandatory  certification  requirements  differ  between  countries,  European  service 
providers face growing barriers. The greater use of European service standards could 
help  companies  operate  in  a  foreign  market  in  cases  when  national  certificates  are 
required within authorisation or licensing procedures. 

There  are  challenges  though  to  developing  European  service  standards,  such  as 
ensuring the adequate representation and buy-in of stakeholders such as SMEs, social 
and societal actors. 

Further, the needs of the service sectors vary widely and measuring performance of 
services is different from goods. 

Unlike for goods, the EU legislation for services is rarely sector-specific and it does 
not  on  a  regular  basis refer  to  standards  as  tools  to  get  presumption  of  conformity. 
Service standards should remain purely voluntary and based on market demand, and 
as  stated  in  the  Single  Market  strategy,  the  Commission  will  provide  guidance  on 
issues  linked  to  service  standards,  thereby  raising  awareness  of  the  specificities  of 
services standards and identifying ways forward to support their use. The approach 
set out in the guidance will also be used for AUWPs in future years. 

3.3. 

Strategic priority fields for 2016 

The Commission has identified its strategic priorities for European standardisation in 
the  below  listed  fields  where  it  intends  to  ask  from  the  European  standardisation 
organisations  the  development  of  standards.  The  fields  are  directly  linked  to  the 
following  Commission’s  priorities:  Connected  Digital  Single  Market;  Resilient 
Energy  Union  with  a  Forward-Looking  Climate  Change  Policy;  Deeper  and  Fairer 
Internal Market with a Strengthened Industrial Base. 

In  the Connected  Digital  Single Market, the proposed actions aim at enhancing the 
use of digital technologies and online services covering different sectors of economy 
and of the public sector: 

7 http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/digital-economy/ict-standardisation/index_en.htm 

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 

information systems for transport aiming to facilitate the flow, access and use 
of information in transport, in order to enhance efficiency and reduce costs of  
transport operations 

  Common  Information  Sharing  Environment  for  the  surveillance  of  the  EU 
maritime domain seeking to enhance automatic information sharing between 
the national authorities involved in maritime surveillance, including defence 
labelling and marking schemes suitable for eCommerce 

 
  charger for mobile phones and other portable devices 
  eHealth for supporting patients' rights in cross-border healthcare 
  Galileo  Timing  Service  and  the  Galileo  Search  and  Rescue  Return  Link 
Service: allowing user receiver components to obtain precise timing products. 
location authentication from Galileo 

 
  accessibility of public sector bodies' websites 
  access to in-vehicle data 

As it concerns the Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change 
Policy,  the  proposed  actions  aim  at  combining  our  infrastructures,  diversifying  our 
energy  resources,  reducing  energy  consumption  and  promoting  climate-friendly 
technologies: 

  enabling a broader uptake of alternative, climate-friendly  technologies 
  Green  Infrastructure    aiming  to  support  public  procurement  and  overall 

stimulate the market for it 

  Ecodesign on taps, showers products, televisions, smart appliances, machine 

tools, welding equipment and energy labelling  

  deployment  of  alternative  fuels  infrastructure  and  simplification  of  the 
information  to  users  on  the  compatibility  of  their  vehicles  with  the  fuels  or 
electricity re-charging points 

  monitoring of mercury and formaldehyde emissions 

In  supporting  the  Deeper  and  Fairer  Internal  Market  with  a  Strengthened  Industrial 
Base,  the  Commission  proposes  a  number  of  actions  increasing  safety  and 
interoperability requirements which are necessary to the  completion of the internal 
market in products as of to the maintenance of a high performing industrial base in 
Europe: 

improved security and compliance of software defined radio 

  home compostable plastic packaging  
  modelling technique can be used to assess the air quality 
  methodology for source identification and quantification of air pollution 
 
  personal protective equipment (protective clothing) 
  cableway installations 
  appliances burning gaseous fuels 
  consumer products covered by the General Product Safety Directive (e.g. 

 

candles, barbecues, children shoes, pushchairs).  
interoperability of case management systems in charge of supporting out-of- 
court (alternative) dispute resolution cases 

  on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food 
  construction  products  and  introduction  of  thresholds/classes  of  performance 

for  construction products 
interoperability of rail technical specifications 

 

6 

 
 
4. 

INCLUSIVENESS 

In the past two years, great effort has been made to allow SMEs, societal and social 
stakeholders  to  effectively  take  part  to  the  standardisation  activities.  In  accordance 
with  the  provisions  of  the  Regulation  on  financing  of  European  stakeholder 
organisations8,   , the Commission has formalised, following open calls for proposals, 
the  partnerships  with  the  Annex  III  organisations  (SBS 9,  ANEC 10,  ECOS 11 and 
ETUC12,  representing  respectively  SMEs,  consumers,  workers  and  environmental 
interests in standardisation), achieving coherence,  and stability in terms of financing 
and management,  as well as continuity of representation of stakeholders interests in 
the four areas identified by the Regulation. 

As shown by the Independent Review, there are still challenges to be dealt with, in 
order to ensure adequate participation for Annex III organisations. First, there is still 
a lack of awareness and recognition of Annex III organisations and their role in the 
European  Standardisation  System.  Second,  stakeholders  organisations  are  still 
encountering difficulties in accessing relevant documents, necessary to carry out the 
technical work. Third, the interaction with the National Standardisation Bodies is not 
always sufficient to guarantee them a useful support. Fourth, Annex III organisations 
still find difficulties in dealing with the different working procedures of the various 
working groups, which often adds unnecessary administrative burden to the technical 
work.  

In 2016, the Commission will closely monitor further progress in the implementation 
of the provisions of the Regulation and to increase the inclusiveness of the  European 
standardisation system.  

The  Commission  invites  ESOs,  National  Standardisation  Bodies  and  Annex  III 
stakeholder  organisations  to  take  actions  to  address  the  above  identified  challenges 
and further intensify their cooperation. Moreover, the Commission invites the ESOs 
to  continue  and  to  strengthen  their  efforts  to  facilitate  the  work  of  Annex  III 
organisations by adapting internal rules and procedures as notably recommended by 
the  Independent  Review  with  specific  attention  to  the  work  carried  out  at 
international level. 

5. 

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 

The  Commission  invites  the  ESOs  to  continue  the  joint  promotion  of  international 
and  European  standards  in  those  world  regions  where  the  European  industry  can 
benefit from strengthened standardisation relations and easier market access.  

To  achieve  also  better  acceptance  of  European  initiatives  at  international  level  the 
ESS should manage to speak with one voice in the appropriate bodies.  

Towards  third  countries  the  Commission  will  continue  the  various  existing  policy 
dialogues,  visibility  and  awareness  actions  (Seconded  European  Standardisation 
Expert in India, SESEI, Seconded European Standardisation Expert in China, SESEC, 

8 Art. 16 and 17 of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012, Annex III to the Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 
9 Small Business Standards     http://sbs-sme.eu/ 
10 The European consumer voice in standardisation      http://www.anec.eu/anec.asp 
11 The European Environmental Citizens’ Organisation for Standardisation   http://ecostandard.org/ 
12 The European Trade Union Confederation  http://www.etuc.org/ 

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or China Europe Standardisation Information Platform, CESIP) for which the ESOs’ 
support is fundamental (see the yearly Operating Grants).  

The  benchmark  for  the  joint  work  is  the  current  cooperation  and  information 
exchange vis-à-vis the United States.  

international 
The  Commission,  already 
standardisation  work,  expects  to  be  more  involved  in  European  and  international 
standardisation, to realise the full potential of its existing formal observer-status, in 
order to better implement its commitment to the primacy of international standards.  

technically  contributing 

some 

to 

6. 

IPR AND RESEARCH TOPICS 

6.1. 

IPR in standardisation 

IPR  and  standardisation  are  closely  interrelated,  although  being  fundamentally 
different. Ownership, patents, copyright and related Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) 
policies play an increasingly significant role in standardisation. This is evident in the 
ICT  area,  but  may  affect  other  sectors  as  they  are  affected  by  interoperability 
modalities.  In  this  context,  patents  in  particular  will  play  an  increasing  role  in  all 
fields where patentable solutions will add substantial value to the standards.  
In Case C-170/1313, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) mainly specifies a process, 
with mandatary steps for either side (patent holder and implementer) to either bring 
or prevent an injunction.  

The standard essential patent (SEP) holder must (before bringing an injunction): 

first,  alert  the  alleged  infringer  of  the  infringement  complained  about  by 

- 
designating that patent and specifying the way in which it has been infringed, and,  

secondly, after the alleged infringer has expressed its willingness to conclude a 
- 
licensing agreement on “Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory” (FRAND) terms, 
present  to  that  infringer  a  specific,  written  offer  for  a  licence  on  such  terms, 
specifying, in particular, the royalty and the way in which it is to be calculated. 

In reaction to the SEP holder's offer on FRAND terms, in order to successfully bring 
an  antitrust  defence  against  the  injunction,  the  alleged  infringer  must  diligently 
respond to that offer, in accordance with recognised commercial practices in the field 
and  in  good  faith,  this  being  a  matter  which  must  be  established  on  the  basis  of 
objective factors and which implies, in particular, that there are no delaying tactics. 
Should  the  alleged  infringer  not  accept  the  offer  made,  it  must  submit  to  the 
proprietor of the (SEP) in question, promptly and in writing, a specific counter-offer 
that corresponds to FRAND terms. 

Furthermore, where the alleged infringer is using the teachings of the SEP before a 
licensing  agreement  has  been  concluded,  it  is  for  that  alleged  infringer,  from  the 
point  at  which  its  counter-offer  is  rejected,  to  provide  appropriate  security,  in 
accordance  with  recognised  commercial  practices  in  the  field,  for  example  by 
providing  a  bank  guarantee  or  by  placing  the  amounts  necessary  on  deposit.  The 
calculation of that security must include, inter alia, the number of the past acts of use 
of the SEP, and the alleged infringer must be able to render an account in respect of 
those acts of use.  

13   Case C-170/13,REQUEST for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Landgericht Düsseldorf 
(Germany), made by decision of 21 March 2013, received at the Court on 5 April 2013, in the proceedings, 
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd versus ZTE Corp., ZTE Deutschland GmbH 

8 

 
 
                                                            
In  addition,  where  no  agreement  is  reached  on  the  details  of  the  FRAND  terms 
following  the  counter-offer  by  the  alleged  infringer,  the  parties  may,  by  common 
agreement, request that the amount of the royalty be determined by an independent 
third party, by decision without delay.  

Finally, an alleged infringer cannot be criticised either for challenging, in parallel to 
the negotiations relating to the grant of licences, the validity of those patents and/or 
the essential nature of those patents to the standard in which they are included and/or 
their actual use, or for reserving the right to do so in the future.14 

There is a common understanding that increasing transparency and the quality of the 
patent declarations will improve the current framework. 

ESOs  should  continue  to  improve  their  IPR  policies  and  achieve  a  fair  balance 
between the interests of technology owners and those of technology users. 

Potential  changes  in  the  IPR  framework  would  need  to  be  carefully  studied  and 
extensively tested with all stakeholders. 

6.2. 

Horizon 2020 – Research and Innovation 

The development and implementation of research and innovation agendas including 
through standardisation is essential in addressing competitiveness. Horizon 2020 will 
give  strong  support  to  the  market  uptake  of  innovation,  in  particular  to  supporting 
standardisation through research and putting science into standards. Standardisation 
activities are an essential channel for the market adoption of research results and for 
the  diffusion  of  innovations  including  research  results  from  the  Euratom  part  of 
Horizon 2020. 

ESOs  should  encourage  and  facilitate  appropriate  representation,  at  technical  level, 
in standardisation activities of legal entities participating in a project that is related to 
that area and that is funded by the Union under a multiannual framework programme 
for activities in the area of research, innovation and technological development. 

7. 

7.1. 

OPERATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK 

New methodology for operating grants 

The Commission developed a methodology for sharing the budget between operating 
and  action  grants.  The  repartition  of  the  annual  budget  for  European  standardation 
for operating grants to each European standardisation organisation is as follows: 

 

 

 

for the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) a maximum 53,64% 
of the annual budget for operating grants; 

for the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (Cenelec) a 
maximum 9,23% of the annual budget for operating grants and; 

for the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) a maximum 
37,13% of the annual budget for operating grants. 

7.2. 

Compliance assessment of standards with Union legislation and policies 

The Commission endeavours to harmonise the tasks and strengthen the independency 
of the experts employed for assessing compliance of requested deliverables with the 
Commission requests (like “New Approach Consultants” currently managed by CEN 

14The above applies to injunctions, not to actions for damages/opening of accounts. 

9 

 
 
                                                            
and CENELEC) in order to provide for continuous and long-term availability of such 
assessment service. Various scenarios will be tested in order to find optimal solutions 
for  the  management  of  such  service  on  the  basis  of  actual  needs,  including  an 
informal ad-hoc mediation.    

7.3. 

Pending mandates 

The  Commission  will  examine  which  of  the  mandates  issued  before  the  entry  into 
force of the Regulation are still valid. 

The  Commission  invites  ESOs  to  report  on  the  on-going  work  under  the  mandates 
issued before the enforcement of the Regulation.  The Commission will decide which 
of these overdue mandates should be maintained. 

10