REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS on the implementation of EU standardisation policy and the contribution of European standards to EU policies
Date: 2018-01-16
Institutions: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
Subjects: European standard, European standardisation body, harmonisation of standards, innovation, institutional cooperation, interinstitutional cooperation (EU), international cooperation, single market, standard

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 16.1.2018  COM(2018) 26 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS on the implementation of EU standardisation policy and the contribution of European standards to EU policies {SWD(2018) 15 final}  
 
 
INTRODUCTION 

The  economic  landscape  is  changing  within  the  EU  and  among  its  international  trading 
partners.  Boundaries  between  traditional  manufacturing,  digitisation  and  services  are 
increasingly  blurring  and  the  digital  solutions  are  progressively  integrated  into  global 
industrial value chains. In the face of these challenges, the Commission should translate this 
economic  reality  into  its  standardisation  priorities  for  European  policies  and  legislations, 
together with the inter-institutional partners. In the Communication "European standards for 
21st century" (hereinafter "the Communication")1, in June 2016, the Commission presented a 
new vision for European Standardisation System (ESS) to meet these challenges.  

The new vision, spelled out in the Communication goes beyond the traditional way of dealing 
with  standards  at  EU  level  which  in  the  past  was  limited  to  technical  support  for  EU 
harmonisation  needs.  The  new  vision  focuses  on  the  contribution  of  standardisation  to 
societal  challenges  and  European  policies  such  as  promoting  innovation,  increasing  quality 
and safety, boosting jobs and growth, supporting global value chains and the development of 
the Single Market. 

Besides such expanded policy support, the Communication also introduced new initiatives to 
achieve  these  objectives  within  the  ESS.  This  includes  in  particular  the  Joint  Initiative  on 
Standardisation2 (JIS) and the proposal3  to launch an inter-institutional dialogue with the co-
legislators.  In  addition,  in  April  2016  the  Commission  set  up  priorities  for  ICT 
standardisation, and proposed concrete actions in its Communication on ICT Standardisation 
Priorities for the Digital Single Market (hereinafter the "ICT Communication")4 on the basis 
of  a  strategic  two-pillar approach.  In  the  first  pillar  the  Commission  identified  five  priority 
areas where action is deemed more urgent. In the second pillar, the Commission proposed a 
high-level  process  to  achieve  the  actions,  take  stock  of  progress  on  the  deliverables  –  and 
where necessary – adapt the priorities5. 

One  of  the  most  important  principles  of  standardisation  is  transparency  which  requires 
establishing tools for communicating and sharing information with the interested parties. In 
European  standardisation,  this  has  hitherto  been  achieved  through  the  annual  Union  work 

1 COM(2016)0358 final 
2 C(2016)3211 The JIS sets out a shared vision for European standardisation in order to better prioritise and 

modernise the current European standardisation system, as well as to strive for timely delivery of 
standardisation deliverables. It supports the relevant aspects of the ten European Commission Priorities and 
other policy objectives, while clearly respecting the distribution of different competences between the EU and 
the Member States. It should also further enable the EU to strengthen its driving force in the global 

3 see page 4 in COM(2016)0358 final 
4 COM (2016) 176 final 
5 The progress is reported in the attached Staff Working Document. 

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programme  for  European  standardisation 6    (AUWP)  and  the  Rolling  Plan 7  for  ICT 
Standardisation8. 

This report aims to explain how the individual actions and actors of the previous AUWPs, the 
Communication on ICT Standardisation Priorities for the Digital Single Market  (hereinafter 
the "ICT Communication")9 and the JIS have so far contributed to the objectives set by the 
Communication.  It  is  divided  into  two  parts;  one  covering  the  policy  elements  of  this  new 
vision  and  one  concerning  cooperation  with  stakeholders.  It  is  accompanied  by  a  Staff 
Working  Document  detailing  the  progress  on  the  different  actions  of  the  aforementioned 
AUWPs and other ongoing activities. This report is intended to support the inter-institutional 
dialogue  envisaged in  the  Communication,  which  the  Commission  will  pursue  with  the  co-
legislators during the months following it with a view to laying the foundations for the work 
on the 2019 AUWP. 

POLICY ELEMENTS OF THE NEW VISION  

Promoting innovation 

1. 
Standards  are  a  recognised  driver  for  innovation10.  A  key  instrument  of  innovation  in  the 
standardisation process is the elaboration of the relevant scientific and technical data, better 
known as pre-normative research, which leads to the drafting of a standard. The Regulation 
EU  No  1025/201211 (hereinafter  "the  Regulation")  established  the  framework  following  the 
increased contribution of standardisation to innovation in Europe. Since 2016, together with 
other stakeholders within the framework of the JIS action, the Commission has intensified its 
focus towards this objective by linking research and innovation to standardisation12.  

Ensuring  a  close  and  timely  interaction  between  research  and  development  (R&D)  and 
standardisation is a key factor in helping innovative goods reach the market.  Horizon 2020 
has  also  renewed  its  focus  on  the  relationship  between  its  research  projects  and  the 
standardisation  process,  specifically  by  integrating  standardisation  activities  in  research 
projects and by acknowledging their potential to boost the impact of the research and R&D 
results.  A  number  of  pre-normative  activities  supporting  medical  devices,  environmental 
protection,  decarbonisation,  energy  efficiency  and  metrology  are  being  elaborated  under 
Horizon 2020 projects for Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), cybersecurity 

6 published every year in July, last version COM(2017)453 
7 http://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/2017-rolling-plan-ict-standardisation-released-0_en 
8 The  Rolling  Plan  for  ICT  Standardisation  is  published  by  the  Commission  every  year  to  consolidate  the 
different  ICT  standardisation  needs  in  support  of  EU  policies  into  a  single  document.  It  reaches  out  to  both 
European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs) and international and global standards bodies that can respond 
to the proposed actions and support the respective policy objectives with standardisation deliverables. 
9 COM (2016) 176 final 
10 COM(2011) 311 final  
11 See art.5 (2), art. 9 and art .15(1)c 
12 JIS, Action 2 

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and  digital  privacy 13 ,Nanotechnologies,  Advanced  Materials,  Biotechnology,  Energy 
including  Fuel  Cells  and  Hydrogen,  Secure  societies  and  Advanced  Manufacturing  and 
Processing. 

Ongoing pre-normative research is also contributing to harmonised certification schemes of 
security products and systems. 

The  Commission  is  working  with  European  Standards  Organisations  (ESOs)  and  other 
Standards  Developing  Organisations  (SDOs),  fora  and  consortia  and  relevant  stakeholders 
regarding  possible  measures  that  will  improve  the  ICT  standardisation  ecosystem.  This 
includes the promotion of interaction between open source and standardisation communities 
and  the  definition  of  a  balanced,  clear  and  predictable  European  licensing  framework  for 
Standard Essential Patents (SEP).  The Commission published a Communication on the latter 
in November 201714. 

The  Commission  widely  uses  Horizon  2020  to  fund  research  and  innovation  projects 
contributing  to  standardisation  and  is  working  with  the  ESOs  concerning  actions  that  will 
bridge the gap between research, innovation and standardisation. Horizon 2020 public-private 
partnerships (PPPs) are essential for developing key digital technology building blocks. Large 
scale  pilot  projects  prepare  broad  deployment  through  test  beds,  experimentation  facilities 
and  pilot  lines,  generating  knowledge  and  feeding  into  standardisation  processes.  Based  on 
preliminary inputs from Member States and industry, industrial platform initiatives have been 
identified for ‘connected smart factory’, ‘health and care’, ‘smart agriculture’, 'connected and 
automated mobility', ‘smart energy', as well as for cross-cutting industrial data and ‘Internet 
of Things’ platforms. 

low-emission  mobility 15  states 

The  Communication  on  Union  strategy  for 
that 
‘Standardisation and interoperability are crucial to make the most of the scale of the internal 
market, especially for electro-mobility and barriers to charging of electric vehicles across the 
EU  need  to  be  eliminated’.  The  Commission  is  about  to  adopt  the  first  of  a  number  of 
Commission  Delegated  Regulations  to  supplement  and/or  update  the  references  to  the 
standards  referred  to  in  the  technical  specifications,  set  out  in  Annex  II  of  Directive 
2014/94/EU "on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure"  

Increasing quality, safety, security and sustainability of goods and services  

2. 
An  efficient  standardisation  policy  contributes  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  legal  safety 
requirements  by  developing  relevant  state-of–the-art  technical  specifications  and  providing 

13 COM(2017) 477 final/2 
14 COM(2017) 712 final. 
15 COM(2016) 501 final. 

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commonly accepted test methods to measure the compliance of goods and services with the 
prescribed values for quality, safety, security, energy, and material efficiency.  The objectives 
of quality, safety, security and sustainability are generally complementary, but in some cases 
may also conflict. Pursuing the objectives of the standardisation work as much as possible in 
a balanced and mutually reinforcing manner is an on-going challenge. 

2.1. 

Quality 

To help improve quality of services, the Commission has asked the European Standardisation 
Organisations (ESOs)16 to develop European standards in areas such as postal services, where 
standards  have  contributed  to  the  development  of  the  parcel  delivery  sector,  as  well  as 
horizontal service standards that CEN is developing to help service providers, e.g. measuring 
their performance.   

In  metrology,  recently  requested  European  standards17 are  expected  to  improve  quality  of 
measurement  particularly  for  metering  water  and  thermal  energy  specifically,  as  well  as 
decentralised  production  of  renewable  electricity  and  transmission  of  power  to  and  from 
electrical vehicles.  

2.2. 

Safety 

Safety  is  a  core  area  for  European  standardisation.  It  corresponds  to  around  60%  of  the 
Commission standardisation requests, reflecting the impact of safety on the daily lives of EU 
citizens.  The  EU  harmonised  legislation,  as  well  as  the  General  Product  Safety  Directive18, 
which ensure the safety of hundreds of products in EU markets, rely on harmonised standards 
and  other  standards  supporting  EU  legislation19 to  ensure  compliance  with  the  legislation's 
safety requirements.  

Recently  delivered  standards  support  harmonisation  in  a  wide  range  of  areas  such  as  child 
safety  and  personal  protective  equipment.  A  recently  adopted  European  standard  on  child 
safety  specifies  safety  requirements  for  lighters,  which  prevent  children  from  successfully 
operating  the  ignition  mechanism.  Furthermore,  newly  adopted  standards  regarding  baby 
carriers ensure that children cannot grip components. Lastly, standardisation has set technical 
requirements for laser eye-protectors to protect workers against accidental exposure to laser 
radiation in personal protective equipment  

16 CEN —  European  Committee  for  Standardisation,  CENELEC  —  European  Committee  for  Electrotechnical 

Standardisation and ETSI — European Telecommunications Standards Institute 

17 For details, see the accompanying staff working document. 
18 Directive 2001/95/EC 
19 Such as standards  referenced in the Official Journal EU under the Directive 2001/95/EC 

4 

 
 
 
 
                                                            
2.3. 

Security  

In light of both technological and international political developments, security is becoming 
an  increasingly  prioritised  EU  policy  area.  In  the  context  of  security,  since  2016  the 
Commission has identified standardisation needs in the fields of crisis management area and 
in the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence, and has requested the CEN to 
develop  relevant  standards.  In  addition,  pre-normative  research  has  been  initiated  through 
H2020  in  a  number  of  areas  involving  security  threats,  such  as  radiological  and  nuclear 
threats to critical infrastructures. In ICT, the Commission has also launched a standardisation 
request for privacy by design to help manufacturers in accounting for data protection issues in 
a consistent manner. 

2.4. 

Sustainability 

Sustainability is a prominent long-standing objective of European standardisation. Standards 
are required for the implementation of  key EU priorities such as, the Energy Union policy, 
and  its  research  and  innovation  strategy  –  Accelerating  Clean  Energy Innovation20 -    which 
covers actions to address mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, decarbonisation of 
the  energy  system,.  In  2016 21  and  2017 22  the  Commission  asked  the  ESOs  to  elaborate 
standards in relation to: environmental management systems, packaging & packaging waste, 
poly-aromatic  hydrocarbons,  environmental  management,  eco-design  and  energy  labelling, 
water framework directive, greenhouse gas emissions, pesticide application, vapour recovery 
equipment,  batteries,  green  hydrogen,  volatile  organic  compounds,  pyrolysis  oils,  algae, 
increasing energy performance of buildings, deployment of green infrastructure, quality of air 
and reduction of emissions. These requests have been based on the existing legal and policy 
frameworks,  and  adhere to  the criteria established in  those frameworks.  In  order  to remove 
barriers to climate-friendly technologies in the refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumps and 
foam sectors, the Commission has requested that CEN and CENELEC develop the relevant 
European standards.  

Enabling jobs and growth  

3. 
Standardisation  is  a  bottom-up  process  that  enables  the  bringing  together  of  representatives 
from industrial, governmental, scientific and other stakeholders, thus leading to a high level 
of  acceptance  of  standards  among  these  stakeholders.  For  the  EU,  standards  and 
standardisation are clear, strategic assets for securing EU competiveness and are key tools for 
promoting  innovation  and  progress  in  the  Single  Market.  It  is  commonly  accepted  that 
standards and standardisation play a vital part in supporting economic growth through their 
role in boosting productivity and competitiveness and encouraging innovation and prosperity.  
They also provide means for the EU to maintain its leadership in technical development and 
global trade.   

20 COM (2016) 763 
21 COM(2016)357 
22 COM(2017)453 

5 

 
 
                                                            
While national studies carried out by France, Germany the UK and others23  point towards the 
contribution  of  standards  and  standardisation  to  the  competitiveness  of  EU  businesses,  the 
effects  of  standards  and  standardisation  remain  indiscernible  on  a  broader  European  scale. 
This was an issue that returned to the table during the discussion in the context of the JIS to 
enhance the evidence base of the annual governance cycle on EU's standardisation policy.  

The Commission has recognised the importance of a deeper understanding of the economic 
and  societal  impacts  of  standards  and  standardisation  and  sets  out  its  intention  to  launch  a 
study in the AUWP for 201724. The subject is vast and there are methodological challenges in 
measuring the (economic) impacts of standards and standardisation, as well as capturing the 
data that would allow the monetisation of impacts of standards and standardisation and their 
externalities  at  macroeconomic,  sectoral  and  company  levels.  Given  these  considerations,  a 
feasibility  study  by  the  Commission  has  been  launched  this  year      in  co-operation  with 
National  Standards  Bodies  and  other  participants  to  the  respected  JIS  action  covering  this 
study25. Its purpose is to evaluate  the further assessment of undertaking  the eventual study. 

Supporting global value chains  

4. 
The ESS has a key role in helping European businesses and SMEs to expand their activities 
beyond Europe and in assuring the quality and safety of imported products and services. This 
is exemplified by agreements between ESOs and international standardisation organisations 
such  as  the  ISO26,  IEC27 as  well  as  global  partnerships  like  the  3rd  Generation  Partnership 
Project  (3GPP) 28  and  oneM2M 29  organisation.  Since  2016,  the  Commission  has  also  been 
working on promoting the European regulatory model supported by voluntary standards and 
its  close link  to  international  standardisation in  third  countries,  following  the  framework  of 
the JIS.30 The Commission  has  also started to  engage  in  direct dialogues with  the ISO and 
IEC with the aim of maximising adoption of identical European and international standards 
whilst assuring the highest protection for European consumers.   

Standardisation  is  a  key  component  of  EU  Free  Trade  Agreement  (FTA)  negotiations  with 
third countries.  The Commission seeks the commitment of its partners to use state-of-the art 
international standards as a basis for regulations affecting key products and services, in order 
to  guarantee  the  safety  and  security  of  EU  citizens  as  well  as  improve  the  international 

23 DIN (2000): Economic Benefits of   Standardisation, 3 volumes. Berlin: Beuth. (Update 2011), DTI (2005):  
   The Empirical Economics of Standards,  DTI ECONOMICS PAPER NO.12. London and AFNOR (2009)  
   The  Economic  Impact  of    Standardisation  –  Technological  Change,  Standards  and  Long-Term  Growth  in 

France. Paris.  

24 COM(2016)357 
25 Action  1:  Study  on  the  economic  and  societal  impacts  as  well  as  access  to  standards  in  the  EU  and  EFTA 

Member States 

26 International Standardisation Organisation 
27 International Electrotechnical Commission 
28 http://www.3gpp.org/ 
29 http://www.onem2m.org/ 
30 JIS Action 13  

6 

 
 
                                                            
competitiveness  of  EU  businesses.  Recently  concluded  Free  Trade  Agreement  negotiations 
where standardisation has reached a place of prominence include the agreements of the EU 
with  Canada  (CETA,  which  entered  into  force  provisionally  on  21  September  2017), 
Singapore  and  Vietnam  (negotiations  have  been  concluded)  and  Japan  (an  agreement  in 
principle on the main elements has been reached).  

In order to better capture the opportunities afforded by the largest emerging markets, two EU 
standardisation experts (jointly financed by the Commission, the EFTA and the three ESOs) 
seconded  to  China  and  India  have  conducted  awareness-  raising  activities  concerning  the 
respective  standardisation  systems  and  delivered  market  and  regulatory  intelligence  in 
the  Seconded  European 
specific  market  relevant  areas.  As 
Standardisation  Expert  in  China  (SESEC)  project  comes  to  an  end  in  December  2017,  the 
Commission  is  working  together  with  its  project  partners  from  the  project  on  its  renewal 
commencing in 2018. 

the  current  phase  of 

Regarding  the  international  outreach  of  European  Standardisation  in  ICT,  a  Horizon  2020 
cooperation  and  support  action  combined  with  the  Foreign  Policy  Instrument  actions  will 
help reinforce the EU's presence by setting up an observatory of global ICT standardisation 
activities  and  a  funding  facility  to  support  the  participation  of  European  experts  on 
international ICT standardisation and promoting European standardisation in other regions. 

Standardisation  related  to  security  is  part  of  the  discussions  in  United  Nations  Economic 
Commission for Europe aiming to strengthen the EU’s presence and engagement of European 
stakeholders in security related issues. 

The  African  continent  also  presents  new  opportunities  for  standardisation  cooperation.  The 
Joint  Africa-EU  Strategy  could  offer  a  framework  for  developing  a  pan-African 
standardisation system as a technical contribution to pan-African market integration. In 2016 
the  Commission  supported  CEN  and  CENELEC  cooperation  with 
the  African 
Standardisation  Organisations  (ARSO,  AFSEC)  aimed  to  make  standardisation  a  pivotal 
element in the roadmap of the November 2017 EU-Africa Summit. A unified African market 
supported by the European standardisation model is a clear win-win for both partners. 

Preventing costly fragmentation in the single market 

5. 
Each  European  standard  replaces  one  standard  or  a  group  of  national  standards  in  each 
Member  State  with  a  single  standard.  This  makes  life  easier  for  businesses  and  citizens  by 
helping to create modern public services and reducing the administrative burden and costs of 
compliance.  Timely  national  transposition  of  European  standards  and  their  referencing 
(where applicable) in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) is necessary to meet 
the market needs. The average rate of national transposition of European standards (ENs in 
support of EU legislation and policies and other ENs) in EU28 is around 99% (varying from 
93% to 100% per Member State). 

7 

 
 
Legislative  changes  introduced  in  2013,  in  particular  newly  introduced  obligations  of  the 
Commission  relating  to  the  verification  of  harmonised  standards  developed  by  the  ESOs, 
have  influenced  the process of the publication  of references to  harmonised  standards in  the 
OJEU. This then led to an increased number of non-cited references. Various standardisation 
stakeholders  consequently  voiced  criticism  that  the  situation  was  creating  legal  uncertainty 
and unnecessary additional costs for European industries. The situation was reviewed in 2017 
within  the  framework  of  the  Commission's  Regulatory  Fitness  and  Performance  (REFIT) 
programme  with  a  view  to  addressing  the  current  stock  of  non-cited  harmonised  standards 
and  making  the  citation  process  more  transparent  and  accountable.  Based  on  the 
the  European 
recommendations  of 
Standardisation Organisations have developed and agreed upon an action plan for the timely 
publication of the references of the harmonised standards in the OJEU.32 

the  REFIT  Platform 31 , 

the  Commission  and 

WORKING CLOSELY WITH STAKEHOLDERS 

The  Commission  is  well  aware  that  it  is  not  enough  to  simply  set  priorities.  Success  also 
depends  on high-level commitment  to  standardisation  from  a  broad  stakeholder  base  which 
includes  industry,  standard-setting  organisations,  the  research  community  and  other  EU 
institutions and national administrations.  

A  standard  is  the  result  of  a  voluntary  cooperation  between  partners  in  a  commercial 
relationship  aiming  to  develop  a  technical  specification  based  on  the  principles  of 
transparency,  openness,  inclusiveness,  impartiality  and  consensus  among  stakeholders.  The 
Regulation  on  European  standardisation 33  recognises  the  need  and  calls  for  a  broad 
consultation  of  all  interested  stakeholders,  prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  AUWP.  It  also 
encourages the active participation of European organisations representing SMEs, consumers 
and environmental and social interests.  

The  Commission recognises that  bridging the traditional  boundaries  between  ICT, products 
and services requires commitment, good cooperation and mutual trust between the different 
stakeholders. In the ICT standardisation domain, the Commission regularly met stakeholders 
through  Public  Private  Partnerships 34 and  also  through  the  ESOs,  to  discuss  the 
implementation  of  the  various  actions  proposed.  The  Multi-stakeholders  Platform  on  ICT 
Standardisation,  which  follows  up  the  progress  of  the  actions  of  the  Communication  at 
regular meetings, brings together Member States, European and international standardisation 
organisations, fora and consortia, organisations representing industry and SMEs and societal 
representatives.  

31

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/overview-law-making-process/evaluating-and-improving-

existing-laws/reducing-burdens-and-simplifying-law/refit-platform_en 

32 see action plan in the in the attached Staff Working Document. 
33 Art 8(5) and recital 31 of EU Regulation  No 1025/2012 
34 i.e., 5G PPP, AIOTI, BDVA, ECSO 

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The Commission has reinforced its relations with the various stakeholders of the ESS and is 
trying to improve its functionality and efficiency under the JIS.  Moreover, the Commission 
has  maintained  regular  contact  and  dialogue  with  other  European  institutions  over  the  past 
year.  In particular, the Commission has been closely involved in the consultations leading up 
to  the  European  Parliament  resolution  of  4  July  2017  on  European  standards  for  the  21st 
century35. The Commission also initiated and established the practice of continuous structural 
dialogues  with  the  three  European  Standardisation  Organisations  to  ensure  high-quality 
cooperation and smooth communication. 

Joint Initiative on European standardisation   

1. 
To  date  the  JIS  has  been  signed  by  104  participants  which  represents  a  high  level  of 
engagement from every segment of the ESS. Following the stakeholders' signature of the JIS 
on  13  June  2016  in  Amsterdam  and  that  of  the  Member  States  on  29  September  2016,  the 
Commission  organised  several  meetings  of  the  JIS  steering  group  in  order  to  fine-tune  the 
fifteen agreed actions36. The members of the steering group are mainly signatories to the JIS 
who were involved in its preparation. For each action, signatories to the JIS have volunteered 
to contribute and leaders have been assigned.  

So far, the work in the individual JIS action groups has focused on the development of the 
substantive elements for each action. No clear timetables have been agreed at this stage. More 
clarity  on  the  content  of  the  actions  will  permit  the  development  of  timeframes  and 
milestones for deliverables in each action.   

Inclusiveness 

2. 
The  Commission  has  formalised  its  public-private  partnership  with  the  Annex  III 
organisations (SBS, ANEC, ETUC and ECOS)37 representing respectively SMEs, consumers, 
workers  and  environmental  interests  in  standardisation  by  signing  four  different  framework 
partnership  agreements.  This  ensures  coherence  and  stability  in  terms  of  financing  and 
activity monitoring. 

In addition to the financial contribution, the Commission takes actions to ensure the presence 
and  effective  participation  of  the  Annex  III  organisations  in  important  meetings  and  events 

35

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P8-TA-2017-

0278+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN 
36 The  initiatives  are  divided  into  the  following  three  categories:  (I)  Awareness,  education  and  understanding 
about  the  European  Standardisation  System,  (II)  Coordination,  transparency  and  inclusiveness,  (III) 
Competitiveness and international dimension. 

37       Small  Business  Standards,  the  European  consumer  voice  in  standardisation  ,  the  European  Trade  Union 
Confederation   and the European Environmental Citizens’ Organisation for Standardisation 

9 

 
 
                                                            
such  as  the  Committee  on  Standards  (observers),  the  JIS  (partners),  the  Multi  Stakeholder 
Platform on ICT standardisation38 and meetings between the Commission and the ESOs.  

in 

interest 

In  order  to  ensure  a  coherent  approach  to  supporting  the  interests  of  SMEs,  consumers, 
workers  and  environmental  and  societal 
the  standardisation  process, 
CEN/CENELEC  have  established  two  working  groups,  the  SME  Working  Group  and  the 
Societal Stakeholder Group. The members are the Annex III organisations–  the SBS of the 
first and ANEC, ECOS and ETUC of the second. These two working groups discuss topics 
such  as  access  to  standards,  awareness  raising,  training  and  support  for  participation  in  the 
standardisation work on a technical level are discussed. As a result, a number of tools have 
already been developed such  as  online toolboxes  for SMEs  and the opinion  mechanism  for 
the societal stakeholders. 

The  Standardisation  Regulation  puts  particular  emphasis 39  on  the  involvement  of  small 
businesses in the standard  development process, with  the target of producing SME-friendly 
standards which can reduce costs and open up markets. With this objective in mind and as a 
main  part  of  its  2017  Work  Programme,  the  SBS  has  developed  a  long-term  strategy  for 
SMEs  in  standardisation  for  the  period  2018-2021.  This  strategy  sets  out  the  goals  and 
actions  for SMEs  in  standardisation  with  a view  to  ensure  that  the  standards  developed  are 
SME compatible, following the "think small first" principle. 

Inclusiveness  is  one  of  the  topics  of  the  European  Telecommunications  Standards  Institute 
(ETSI)  Long  Term  Strategy  and  it  is  addressed  in  the  context  of  its  group  “ETSI  in  the 
European Standardisation Landscape”. Discussions inside this group have led to the launch of 
the Societal Stakeholder Support and Inclusiveness programme (3SI), which envisages a set 
of  actions  designed  to  enhance  inclusiveness  and  increase  the  visibility,  awareness  and 
involvement of the Annex III organisations inside ETSI. All Annex III organisations are full 
members of ETSI. 

CONCLUSION 

This  report  is  intended  to  support  the  newly  introduced  inter-institutional  dialogue  on 
standardisation  at  the  EU  level,  as  announced  in  the  Communication  of  1  June  2016.  It  is 
meant to trigger a debate with the co-legislators, the European Parliament and the Council, as 
well  as  with  the  EESC  and  the  Committee  of  the  Regions,  and  provides  orientations  for 
forthcoming  priorities  of  standardisation  that  will  contribute  to  jobs,  growth  and  the 
competitiveness agenda. This inter-institutional dialogue is being set-up in line with the new 

38 https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/european-multi-stakeholder-platform-ict-standardisation 
39 See art. 6 of (EU) Regulation 1025/2012 

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Inter-institutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European 
Union and the European Commission on Better Law-Making40. 

A close cooperation with the co-legislators on formulating the priorities of the 2019 AUWP 
will  be  vital  for  its  successful  implementation.  Jointly  set  policy  priorities  for  European 
standardisation  will  enhance  the  streamlining  of  standardisation  work  in  future  legislative 
processes.  Achieving  the  targets  of  the  EU  standardisation  policy  requires  a  common 
understanding and the active participation of all actors of the ESS: enhancing inclusiveness, 
increasing  awareness  of  the  importance  of  standardisation  in  the  economy  and  the  society, 
improving the procedures for the assessment of the harmonised standards41, implementing the 
five ICT standardisation priorities and tackling the obstacles in the services sector. 

40 OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1–14 
41 and other standards supporting EU legislation 

11