NEWS

Are you looking forward to serene and well-deserved summer holidays abroad, after the long months of lockdowns? Look no further: European standards can help reopen tourism safely and quickly! Today, 19 May, CEN made available the 'European Tourism COVID-19 Safety Seal'. The seal is set out by two CEN Workshop Agreements (CWAs) as part of the 5643 series, developed by the CEN Workshop EUROSAFETOUR.

Many initiatives have been launched both at national and European level to achieve the European objectives for climate and energy by 2030 and for the Paris Agreement. One of these is now a reference about environmental policies and governmental actions: CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) 17675 ‘Mapping of the mandatory and voluntary Carbon Management framework in the EU’.

Climate change impacts are already affecting ecological and socio-economic systems, and it is anticipated that these impacts will continue well into the future. Organisations of all types and sizes have increasing needs to understand, mitigate and manage climate change risks. A recently published standard, EN ISO 14091:2021 ‘Adaptation to climate change - Guidelines on vulnerability, impacts and risk assessment’ offers organisations a consistent, structured and pragmatic approach to understanding their vulnerabilities and to preventing or mitigating negative consequences caused by climate change, while taking advantage of opportunities. 

CEN-CLC/JTC 11 ‘Accessibility in the built environment’ develops standardization deliverables as requested by the mandate M/420 ‘European accessibility requirements for public procurement in the built environment’.

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) is proud to announce the publication of EN 17444 “Doping prevention in sport - Good development and manufacturing practices aimed at preventing the presence of prohibited substances in food intended for sportspeople and food supplements”. 

Two standards establishing an International Patient Summary, EN 17269:2019 and CEN/TS 17288:2020, were recently developed by CEN/TC 251 'Health informatics'. These standards cover the requirements for exchanging a core, essential dataset of healthcare data to support the continuity of care for a patient, whenever and wherever it is needed.

The new versions of two of the most important European standards for lifts (EN 81-20:2020 and EN 81-50:2020) have just been published in the Official Journal of the EU, ensuring their harmonisation under the Lifts Directive.

CEN/TC 159 ‘Hearing protectors’ recently developed a series of new standards that provide a high level of safety for hearing protectors including conformity assessment methods for the integration of electronic communication facilities.

Under the leadership of NEN, the Dutch National Standardization Body, CEN/TC 19 'Gaseous and liquid fuels, lubricants and related products of petroleum, synthetic and biological origin' started to improve the existing European standards for the identification of oil pollution in 2018.

Among the many changes that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought, especially one has upset our routines: homeworking. Eurofound, the EU Agency for the improvement of living and working conditions, has estimated that almost 40% of work by dependent employees in the EU has been carried out at home during the pandemic.