1. EU Standardisation Policy
13th CoU Meeting – Thematic Group 3 Brussels, 27 March 2019
Antonio Conte, ICT Standardisation Policy Officer
Unit GROW/B3 "Standards for Growth"
DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs European Commission

2. The legal basis
Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 establishes rules with regard to:
The cooperation between ESOs, national standardisation bodies, Member States and the Commission
The establishment of European standards and European standardisation deliverables in support of Union legislation and policies
The identification of ICT technical specifications eligible for referencing
The financing of European standardisation and stakeholder participation in European standardisation

3. European standardisation …
… is founded on the WTO principles of coherence, transparency, openness, consensus, voluntary application, independence from special interests, efficiency;
… supports the Single Market by eliminating technical barriers to trade, and facilitating the free movement of goods and services, network interoperability, means of communication, technological development and innovation.

4. High-level overview of the global standardisation ecosystem

5. Standardisation is a form of self regulation
Interested parties come together and agree voluntarily on technical matters
Compete more efficiently by ensuring the interoperability of their products

6. Standards are not Legislation!!!
Voluntary
Consensual
Developed by independent organisations
Revised every 5 years
Provide specifications and test methods (interoperability, safety, quality, etc.)
Legislation :
Mandatory
Imposed by Law
Established by public authorities
Revised when legislators decide
Sets requirements to protect public interests

7. Why European standards are special?
European standards (ENs) support the functioning of the Single Market
One EN replaces 34 different national standards: one product-one standard, priority to international ones
National Standardisation Bodies are obliged to adopt ENs as national standards and withdraw any conflicting ones
The system is transparent, stable and predictable

8. Legislative and normative processes
Legislation
Requests for standards
Standards
Publication of standards
references in
the Official Journal
Annual Union Work Programme for Standardisation
Policy

9. EU legislation makes reference to standards
Direct reference: mandatory – mandatory for specific use
Indirect reference  « New Approach »

10. References to Standards in «New Approach» legislation
Objective: remove barriers to trade in the EU Single Market
How? By task sharing:
Legislation: mandatory, stable, predictable and safeguarding public interest (via listing the essential requirements)
Standards: voluntary, constantly updated to the state-of-the-art, predictable, harmonising the technical specifications
Areas: Protection of health, safety,
environment and consumers

11. A coherent Framework
1025/2012
AUWP
COM (2016) 176
MSP

12. Beyond the Standardisation Regulation: the Joint Initiative on Standardisation (JIS)
Non-legislative initiative in the areas of governance, interaction and communication to improve the European Standardisation System
Joint exercise - collaborative approach
Common vision on standardisation supporting the Juncker priorities + 15 practical actions (by 2019)
Driven by stakeholders with the EC coordinating and bringing together all participants involved
More than 120 signatories/endorsements, including MSs, industry, civil society, NSBs

13. Further information