CEN and CENELEC have long supported the Single Market, with standardization being key to its success for over thirty years. While we share the view that the Single Market and the European Standardization System must evolve to meet the increasingly complex challenges posed by emerging technologies and faster innovation cycles, the Strategy issued today by the European Commission rightly recognizes standards as the cornerstone of the Single Market, providing legal certainty to business, facilitating access to new technologies, and boosting competitiveness.
Together with the European Commission, we are committed to working towards an advanced European Standardization System (ESS) that reinforces our commitments to digitalization and speeding up the development of standards (for example, through the SMART standards initiative), while strengthening Europe’s role as a global standard setter to ensure the competitiveness and resilience of European industry.
Below we have outlined how we are responding to some of the key challenges discussed in the Single Market Strategy regarding Harmonized Standards: speed, the use of common specifications, access to harmonized standards, and inclusivity.
Speeding up the development of European Standards
- For many years, ESS has delivered high-quality standards that enable the Single Market, built on the core principles of openness, transparency, consensus and inclusive participation. These principles, in line with WTO regulations, remain essential, and must now be applied in a way that meets the pace of current innovation cycles. CEN, CENELEC, and their National Members are reviewing the standards development processes and actively developing solutions that accelerate the availability of deliverables, while still upholding its integrity. Standards are developed through consensus and ensure that quality and safety are not compromised, while still maintaining the state of the art.
- CEN and CENELEC have invested into modern standardization processes to speed up development. Two key projects are running, in cooperation with our international counterparts, ISO and IEC: 1) Online Standards Development (OSD), which enables Technical Committees to use a collaborative authoring for online solutions, allowing live updates with full visibility to all experts, and therefore, leading to faster progress when developing deliverables; 2) Machine Readable Standards (SMART) aim to develop machine-interpretable standards and streamline the process by providing a pre-structured layout that allows technical experts to focus fully on the content rather than formatting.
The use of common specifications
- Harmonized standards (hENs) are the most effective tool to support harmonization in legislation. They should precede other specifications like Common Specifications (CS) or code of practices. Common Specifications developed outside the recognized standardization process can be less transparent, not achieve the desired result or not be implemented in a practical way as they are less likely to represent perspectives of all the independent, technical experts from different stakeholders. Common Specifications should therefore only be used in exceptional cases, and under clearly defined conditions to avoid undermining the existing well known, market-driven standardization system.
- CEN and CENELEC suggest an article, based on Article 20 of the Machinery Regulation, to be the preferred choice for New Legislative Framework initiatives. Similar articles have been used coherently by the European Commission in recent NLF legislations, such as the Batteries Regulation, the AI Act, the Eco-Design for Sustainable Products Regulation, Cyber Resilience Act, etc. Using this model article would be essential to prevent conflicting NLF legislations and to ensure clear understanding of the role of CS among standards users and standers developers. This should be considered by policymakers when the proposed omnibus IV enters the legislative process.
Embracing free readability while upholding the importance of copyright & intellectual property
- As discussed in the Single Market Strategy, free readability access to harmonized European standards is an important issue for the European Standardization System. CEN and CENELEC believe that a better understanding of the content of a harmonized European standard would promote the widespread adoption of best practices and drive quality across several industries. However, this transition must be carefully managed to preserve the integrity and sustainability of the official, stakeholder-led ESS. CEN and CENELEC Members are well-positioned to lead this transition by using their established national platforms to efficiently distribute, promote, and support the use of harmonized standards at the local level.
- Upholding existing intellectual property rights and copyright frameworks is essential to protect the integrity and financial sustainability of the system. Copyright enables Members, many of which are not-for-profit, to develop value-added products and services that facilitate implementation, generate new revenue streams, and support long-term sustainability. Through the partnership with the European Commission, CEN and CENELEC are working to ensure that harmonized standards remain a tool for simplification, quality, and safety within the European single market.
Inclusivity of the European Standardization System
- CEN and CENELEC have cultivated a strong network of more than 200.000 technical experts from industry, SMEs, associations, public administrations, academia and societal organizations. The strength of the European Standardization System lies in its ability to bring together a broad range of stakeholders through structured, national-level participation that ensures all voices are heard. These national processes promote diversity of input and stakeholder balance, reinforcing both legitimacy and technical quality. The National Members of CEN and CENELEC (respectively, National Standardization Bodies and National Committees) act as crucial links between national stakeholders and the European level as they channel input from national stakeholders to the development of European standards. National standardization organizations can often be more easily accessible to stakeholder groups like SMEs, as they can provide guidance in their national language and based on their national market needs.
- CEN and CENELEC see the need for increased participation of more types of stakeholders, particularly SMEs, civil society and academia. One of the biggest barriers for participation is awareness and knowledge of the standardization system among a wider range of experts. To increase this knowledge, CEN and CENELEC have committed to the High-Level Forum Pledge on Education for Standardization and are taking several actions to meet the goals of this pledge. One such example is CEN’s participation as a partner in the consortia for the Horizon Europe Project Edu4standards, which aims to increase skills in standardization by improving education on standardization within European Higher Education Institutes.
In its current proposal, the Single Market Strategy recognizes the symbiotic nature between standards and policy goals. CEN, CENELEC and the European Commission work diligently towards embracing the New Legislative Framework (NLF), as it coordinates an effective EU-wide response to products bearing a risk and safeguards streamlining procedures and rapid EU-wide enforcement.
With the upcoming new Single Market policies, it will be important for the European Commission to consider how and when to request harmonized standards that can be of support. CEN and CENELEC are already supporting the goals of the new Strategy through the development of standards to enable the digital infrastructure of the Digital Product Passport, a key initiative of the European Commission within this strategy as it intends to expand the use of the DPP to many product groups.
Considering the upcoming Revision of Regulation 1025/2012 on European Standardization, we believe this is a crucial moment to put forward a strong vision of how to sustain the European Standardization System, and how it can better support our common ambition towards a stronger, more resilient Single Market. It is not a secret that the world is changing; Europe needs to prepare to show leadership in technology and innovation to meet these challenges. Thanks to the support of European Standards and a powerful European Standardization System, a reliable infrastructure of knowledge is in place and ready to support the future of the European Single Market.
