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 2017
Date: 2016-06-01
Institutions: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, digital technology, energy policy, information technology industry, innovation, institutional cooperation, international cooperation, service, single market, standardisation

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 1.6.2016  COM(2016) 357 final   Standardisation package 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 2017 {SWD(2016) 185 final}  
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

European standards have proven to be an important policy tool for European policy 
making. Standards represent policy instruments which improve the functioning of the 
Single  Market  by  eliminating  technical  barriers  caused  by  conflicting  national 
standards.  They  ensure  the  interoperability  of  networks  and  systems,  grant  a  high 
level  of  consumer  and  environmental  protection,  they  support  and  promote 
innovation.  Standards  benefit  consumers,  companies  and  society  at  large  and 
contribute to the overall growth and competitiveness of the EU economy. 

By  driving  the  development  of  European  standards  for  goods  and  services  in 
strategic  priority  areas  representing  expanding  markets,  the  Commission  aims  to 
create a competitive advantage for European enterprises, in particular for SMEs.  

The  publication  of 
the  annual  Union  work  programme  for  European 
standardisation  (AUWP)  is  a  requirement  set  by  the  Regulation  (EU)  1025/2012 
(the Regulation) and aims to identify strategic priorities for European standardisation 
reflecting the policy objectives set by the Commission in its own planning. 

In order to create new momentum for European Standardisation, the AUWP for 2017 
is  part  of  a  comprehensive  package  on  standardisation,  including  the  Commission 
Communication on "European standards for the 21st century", with a Staff Working 
document on Service Standardisation, the Communication on the Article 24 Report 
on the implementation of the Regulation. In the AUWP, particular attention is paid to 
the Communication on the priority ICT standards plan adopted on 19th April 2016. 
This  AUWP  is  also  adopted  also  having  in  mind  the  discussions  conducted  in  the 
context  of  the  Joint  Initiative  on  Standardisation,  initiated  by  the  Commission 
following the adoption of the Single Market Strategy1. 

It  supports  actions  across  the  Commission  priorities  for  Connected  Digital  Single 
Market;  Resilient  Energy  Union  with  a  Forward-Looking  Climate  Change  Policy; 
Deeper and Fairer Internal Market with a Strengthened Industrial Base. 
The  current  AUWP  complements  the  actions  included  in  the  AUWP  for  2016 2, 
notably on inclusiveness in the meaning of the Regulation.  

The  orientations  indicated  in  the  work  programme  do  not  have  a  budgetary  impact 
over and above what is already foreseen in financial perspectives for the year 2017.  

2. 

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES FOR EUROPEAN STANDARDISATION 

2.1. 

ICT Standardisation 

The  Commission  Communication  on  ICT  Standardisation  Priorities  for  the  Digital 
Single  Market 3 identifies  a  list  of  priority  building  blocks  for  the  Digital  Single 
Market  (DSM)  where  improved  ICT  standardisation  is  most  urgent 4 :  5G 
communications,  cloud  computing,  the  internet  of  things  (IoT),  (big)  data 
technologies  and  cybersecurity.  These  are  essential  technology  building  blocks 
where  areas  such  as  eHealth,  connected  and  automated  vehicles,  smart  energy, 
advanced manufacturing or smart cities will rely. At this stage, the Commission does 
not  foresee  to  send  any  standardisation  requests  to  the  ESOs  but  will  ask  for  their 

1 COM(2015) 550 final, SWD(2015) 202 final 
2 COM(2015)686 
3 COM(2016)176 
4 COM(2015) 192 

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involvement in a number of preparatory activities aiming at mapping and developing 
the appropriate standards. 

In  cloud  computing,  the  Commission  will  request  ESOs  to  update  the mapping  of 
cloud standards and guidelines for end users (especially SMEs and the public sector), 
in  collaboration  with  international  SDOs,  cloud  providers  and  end  users,  by  mid-
2017. 

In  the  internet  of  things  (IoT),  the  Commission  will  foster  an  interoperable 
environment  for  the  Internet  of  Things,  working  with  ESOs  and  international 
Standards  Development  Organisations.  The  Commission  then  will  assess  if  further 
steps  are  needed  to  tackle  identified  interoperability  failures,  and  if  necessary, 
consider using legal measures to recommend appropriate standards. 

In cybersecutity, the Commission will: 

 

 

invite  ESOs  to  draw  up  practical  guidelines  covering  IoT,  5G,  Cloud,  Big 
Data and smart factories, by the end of 2016; 

invite  ESOs  to  develop  standards,  by  the  end  of  2018,  that  support  global 
interoperability  and  seamless  trustworthy  authentication  across  objects, 
devices and natural and legal persons based on comparable trust models; 

  over the next three years, will support ESOs in the development of standards-
based  cybersecurity  risk  management  guidelines  for  organisations  and  of 
corresponding  audit  guidelines  for  authorities  or  regulators  with  oversight 
responsibilities. 

The  Commission  will  work  with  ESOs  to  ensure  that  their  strategies  and  activity 
roadmaps  take  into  account  the  new  requirements  emerging  from  the  digitisation 
industries such as vehicles, energy, eHealth and advanced manufacturing. 

2.2. 

Services Standardisation 
As  announced  in  the  Single  Market  strategy 5,  the  Commission  has  adopted  a  a 
document  on  services  standardisation  as  a  staff  working  document  annexed  to  the 
Communication  on  "European  standards  for  the  21st  century".  The  document 
clarifies services standards coverage, specificities, benefits as well as challenges. In 
order  to  promote  the  greater  development  and  use  of  European  standards,  and  to 
address national barriers fitting within the existing legal framework, most notably the 
Services Directive, the Commission proposes a combined approach consisting of: 

  an  enhanced  development  of  European  service  standards  based  on  a 
framework  for  the  monitoring  of  national  and  other  service  standards  and 
market  needs,  identifying  possible  areas  for  development  of  European 
standards,  prioritisation  in  line  with  EU  priorities,  and  prompting  their 
development; 

 

improved  mutual  recognition  and  reduction  of  related  national  obstacles, 
starting  with  a  targeted  review  of  existing  rules  and  practices  for 
authorisations concerning standards and certificates in a chosen area as well 
as the assessment of equivalence of requirements; and 

5 COM(2015)550 

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  more  effective  information  to  service  providers,  including  improving  the 
availability of information on standards and related requirements through the 
Digital Single Gateway. 

Based on the above, the Commission: 

  will  carry  out  an  analysis  of  whether  there  are  areas  of  conflict  or  duplication 
between national service standards or where there are potential policy gaps with 
respect to the ten Commission Priorities. It will report on an annual basis as part 
of  the  report  to  the  EP  and  the  Council  on  EU  standardisation  policy.  On  this 
basis it will decide whether to issue mandates or to recommend that CEN develop 
standards or standardisation deliverables. 

  will engage by the end of 2016, with European and national standard setters and 

stakeholders to agree criteria to prioritise European service standards. 

  will launch in 2017 a targeted review to gather information on existing rules and 
practices for authorisations on standards and certificates as well as the assessment 
of  equivalence  of  requirements,  with  a  view  to  promoting  best  practices,  the 
removal  of  barriers  and  widespread  adoption  of  proportionate  equivalence 
assessments. 

 

 

 

recommends  that  CEN  (i)  finalise  its  work  on  mapping  international,  European 
and  national  service  standards  by  the  end  of  2016  and  that  it  maintains  it  on  a 
constant  basis,  (ii)  issues  an  annual  list  of  areas  of  potential  conflict  or 
duplication between national service standards or where there are potential gaps 
where  European  service  standards  could  be  developed,  and    (iii)  identifies 
whether there are any areas impeded by the absence of linked product and service 
standards. 

recommends to NSBs deciding on whether to develop a national service standard, 
to consider the European dimension and whether it might be better to develop a 
European service standard instead. 

recommends to Member States to explore the use of European service standards, , 
when introducing or reviewing legislation involving market access conditions in 
service sectors. 

The measures proposed complement the other actions on services and standardisation 
in the Single Market Strategy, as well as the Joint Initiative on Standardisation. The 
activities  are  carried  out  in  the  frame  of  existing  structures  and  processes  of  the 
European Standardisation System, and they make use of existing fora and groups.  

The  implementation  of  the  proposed  framework  starts  in  2016,  following  the 
adoption of the Commission standardisation package. In 2017, the Commission will 
step up efforts and set practical solutions to promote the greater development and use 
of European service standards, improve awareness, and address the barriers faced by 
European service providers. 

2.3. 

Strategic priority fields for standardisation requests to the ESOs in 2017 

The Commission has identified its strategic priorities for European standardisation in 
the below listed fields where it intends to request from the European standardisation 
organisations  the  development  of  standards  and  standardisation  deliverables.  The 

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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 e-
skills and the use of digital technologies: 

  develop  and  start  the  implementation  of  a  comprehensive  European 
framework for the ICT professions, providing a reference of competences as 
required  and  applied  at  the  Information  and  Communication  Technology 
(ICT)  workplace,  using  a  common  language  for  competences,  skills  and 
proficiency levels that can be understood across Europe; 
improving and  facilitating the reporting formalities required be  legal  acts of 
the Union und by Member States for ships arriving in and/or departing from 
ports of the Member States in order to reduce the administrative burdens for 
shipping companies; 
facilitate  the  flow,  access  and  use  of  information  in  transport  in  order  to 
enhance efficiency and reduce costs of transport operations. 

 

 

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

  enabling  harmonisation of licensing process and industrial standards for EU 
nuclear  infrastructures  development  throughout  their  lifetime  (construction, 
operation, decommissioning, waste management) in order to built a common 
framework for energy policies and win from economies of scale; and 

  assuring interoperability between grids for increase of renewable energies  in 
the power mix, in order to enhance the capacity of the existing infrastructures 
to absorbe green energy resources while not increasing the cost for users. 

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

 

In  the  construction  products  sector,  the  following  initiatives  will  allow  the 
industry  to  incorporate  improvements  from  other  sectors,  adapt  the  existing 
products  and  producing  new  innovative  products  to  meet  the  current  safety 
and quality needs: 

1.  assessment  methods  for  regulated  dangerous  substances  and  the  emission 
of radiation must be finalised and the new assessment methods should be 
gradually introduced in construction product standards;  

2.  construction  products 

in  contact  with  water 

intended  for  human 

consumption; 

3.  innovative  products  and  assessment  of  essential  characteristics  of  the 

contruction products performance; 

  methods for assessment of the risk of unlisted substances related with plastic 
materials  and  articles  intended  to  come  into  contact  with  food  in  order  to 
update the existing standards against new hazzards; 

  plastic  biodegradability  for  packaging  and  packaging  waste  which  will 

 

support recycling; 
In the field of railways, the following initiatives will help on the improvement 
the interlinking and interoperability of the national rail networks: 

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1.  interior  passive  safety  supporting  the  interoperability  of  the  rail  system 
which will improve the safety requirements of travel by train at European 
level; 

2.  simplification of the methodology for the calculation of the free passage of 
the  pantograph  (mechanical  kinematic  pantograph  gauge)  to  facilitate  the 
assessment of the acceptance of pantograph heads in overhead contact lines; 
continued work on the interoperability of the railway system: development 
of urban railway standards. 

 

by 

several 

accidents 

following 
triggered 
products/procedures  are  to  be  addressed  in  standards:    weather  information 
products  provided  to  pilots  including  applications  in  the  cockpit  based  on 
different  sources,  Runway  Overrun  Awareness  Alerting  systems,  Onboard 
Weight and Balance systems; 

incidents, 

and 

the 

  sustainable  chemicals  produced  from  secondary  raw  materials  which  will 
minimise the cost  and the dependence of European Union for raw materials; 
and 

  supporting  the  competitiveness  and  efficiency  of  the  defence  and  security 
sector in order to win from economies of scale and support Europe in its role 
as a stronger global actor 

3. 

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 assistance and easier market access.  

A  significant  part  of  European  standards  derive  directly  from  international 
standardisation.  

To  achieve  also  better  acceptance  of  European  initiatives  at  international  level  the 
ESS should manage to express coherent positions in the appropriate bodies.  

The  Commission 
is  negotiating  TTIP  (Transatlantic  Trade  and  Investment 
Partnership) with the United States, and standardisation is a major point of discussion, 
due  to  the  two  different  systems,  but  susceptible  to  bring  great  advantages  if  a 
mutually benefiting agreement would be reached between the two parties. 

The  Commission  has  also  succesfully  negotiated  CETA  with  Canada,  and  is  in 
ongoing  negotiations  with  Japan.  In  all  these  trade  agreements,  standardisation  is 
crucial, because the main barriers between these actors are technical barriers to trade 
rather than simple tariff issues. 

Towards third countries, the Commission will continue the existing policy dialogues, 
visibility and awareness actions (Seconded European Standardisation Expert in India, 
SESEI,  Seconded  European  Standardisation  Expert  in  China,  SESEC,  or  China 
Europe  Standardisation Information  Platform, CESIP) for which the ESOs’  support 
is fundamental (see the yearly Operating Grants).  

The  standardisation-related  cooperation  with  China  has  a  twinned  objective.  The 
promotion  of  the  EU  regulatory  model  (for  the  marketing  of  products)  supported 
through  standards  is,  in  the  long  term,  expected  to  ease  market  access.  Bilateral 
technical harmonisation at the level of standards represent another route to create a 
more level playing field, a clear win-win for the domestic market and the European 
companies. According to the findings of the EU-CN WG "Standardisation" some 90 

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ENs  have  been  adopted  as  Chinese  standards  which  represents  a  competitive 
advantage  for  European  companies.  The  India-related  work  pursues  similar 
objectives.     

The  Commission,  already 
international 
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 

4. 

HORIZON 2020 – RESEARCH AND INNOVATION 

The development and implementation of research and innovation agendas including 
through standardisation is essential for EU 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. 

Horizon  2020  will  give  support  to  improve  the  efficiency  of  the  standardisation 
system  by  promoting  open  standards  and  platforms  and  consistent  application  of 
standards and their uptake by the market. 

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. 
ESOs  should  report  to  the  Commission  on  the  implementation  of  this  action  from 
2013 until 2016. 

5. 

NEXT CYCLE 

Following the discussions in the context of the Joint Initiative on Standardisation, to enhance 
the  evidence  base  of  the  annual  governance  cycle  on  EU  standardisation  policy,  the 
Commission will undertake the following two actions:  

  Launch  a  study 
standardisation  

to  analyse 

the  economic  and  societal 

impact  of 

It  is  acknowledged  that  standards  play  a  vital  and  sometimes  invisible  role  in  supporting 
economic growth through their role in boosting productivity, competitiveness and innovation 
as  well  as  societal  welfare.  The  Commission  will  hence,  following  the  invitation  from    the 
Council6 and  in  line  with  the  Joint  Initiative  on  Standardisation,  launch  a  study  in  due  time 
which should explore the impacts of standards on the economy and society at large. The study 

6 The Competitiveness Council on 2 March 2015, "INVITES the Commission to finalize the Independent 
    Review and analyse the impact of standardisation on the economy taking into account the interest of all the  
    parties". 

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will build on and take into account existing national studies7, as well as the different models 
currently used for financing standardisation.  

  Set up a substantiated inter-institutional dialogue  

As  of  2017  in  every  annual  cycle,  the  adoption  of  the  AUWP  in  July  every  year  will  be 
preceded by a single report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council 
on  the  implementation  of  the  EU  standardisation  policy.  On  the  basis  of  this  report,  the 
Commission  proposes  to  engage  in  an  inter-institutional  dialogue  with  the  the  European 
Parliament and the Council in Spring. 

The report will include among others information on: 

 

 

 

 

 

the  progress  of  implementation  of  the  actions  foreseen  in  the  AUWPs,  including  on 
the development of European service standards; 

the progress of implementation of the actions foreseen in the Communication on ICT 
Standardisation Priorities for the Digital Single Market; 

the state-of-play of the standardisation requests addressed to the ESOs; 

the number of standards produced and registered in work programme of the ESOs; 
the contribution of the Annex III organisations (SBS8, ANEC9, ECOS10 and ETUC11 
representing  respectively  SMEs,  consumers,  workers  and  environmental  interests  in 
standardisation) to the production processes of standards (inclusiveness); 

 

the EU financial contribution to the ESOs under the Regulation. 

The  Report  and  the  consecutive  dialogue  will  serve  as  a  policy  input  to  the  AUWP  for  the 
following year. 

7 British  Standards  Institution  (2015),  'The  Economic  Contribution  of  Standards  to  the  UK  Economy';  AFNOR  (2016): 
Economic  impact  of  standardisation;  AFNOR  (2009):  The  Economic  Impact  of  Standardisation  –  Technological  Change, 
Standards and Long-Term Growth in France.; DIN (2000): Economic Benefits of Standardization, 3 volumes. Berlin: Beuth. 
(Update 2011); DTI (2005): The Empirical Economics of Standards, DTI ECONOMICS PAPER NO.12. London 
8 Small Business Standards     http://sbs-sme.eu/ 
9 The European consumer voice in standardisation      http://www.anec.eu/anec.asp 
10 The European Environmental Citizens’ Organisation for Standardisation   http://ecostandard.org/ 
11 The European Trade Union Confederation  http://www.etuc.org/ 

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