Brussels welcomed the second meeting of the European Commission’s High-Level Forum on European Standardization (HLF) on 30 November 2023. The gathering brought together high level representatives of government with c-level leaders throughout industry to discuss the future of European standardization.
The agenda featured a comprehensive combination of milestones and discussions of how to strategically drive European Standardization. The morning began with a pledge on ‘Education and Skills on Standards’ and welcome remarks from Commissioner Thierry Breton. Following into the discussions, topics included how to drive a resilient EU economy and the Forum’s deliverables, European leadership in international standards’ development, and the finalization of the Annual Union Work Programme on Standardization 2024.
Representing CEN and CENELEC were their respective Presidents,
Stefano Calzolari and Wolfgang Niedziella. Mr. Calzolari provided updates for Workstream 14 on Data Interoperability, while Mr. Niedziella presented the updates for Workstream 7 on Wind and Workstream 13 on Digital Product Passport.
Chief Standardization Officer Maive Rute emphasized that the Digital Product Passport is a big cross-sectorial priority, which will need standards. This sentiment was further encouraged for Data, as European Commissioner Thierry Breton highlighted the importance of the recent approval of the Data Act and how standards for data spaces will be needed to deliver these ambitions.
The HLF is a key milestone of the European Standardization Strategy (2022), designed to identify standardization priorities in support of EU policies and legislation, and discuss horizontal issues such as international leadership or education and skills in a multi-stakeholder setting. As this year’s work comes to an end, CEN and CENELEC are looking forward to next year to discover and promote more opportunities to drive European Standardization as an innovative instrument for a more robust future of the EU economy.
