European standardization is evolving. New technologies, changing regulatory and market needs and increasingly digital ways of working require a system that can respond faster, while safeguarding the quality, consensus, openness and trust on which it is built. Against this backdrop, CEN and CENELEC have approved the European Agile Specification (EAS) – a new standardization deliverable designed to bring trusted technical solutions to market more quicky.
The decision represents another concrete step in CEN and CENELEC’s ongoing work to modernize the European Standardization System and make it more responsive. This work puts into practice the Cyprus Commitment, through which CEN and CENELEC’s 43 Members agreed to make European standardization faster, more digital, more open and closer to the needs of industry, policymakers and other stakeholders, still preserving consensus, national delegation, technical excellence, inclusiveness and trust.
Europe increasingly needs standards to be available when they are needed. New technologies develop quickly, innovation takes place across increasingly diverse ecosystems, and standards play a growing role in supporting European policies and legislation. CEN and CENELEC are adapting to this changing environment by developing a more flexible, connected and digitally capable standardization system.
A new route for urgent needs
The European Agile Specification will become a permanent part of the CEN and CENELEC standardization toolbox from 1 January 2027. It will provide a faster route for developing technical solutions in areas where technology, markets or regulatory needs are evolving rapidly. Rather than waiting until every aspect of a specification is finalized, the agile approach allows mature content to be published quickly and further developed through successive iterations. Pilots have shown that an EAS can be developed in less than a year, with maintaining stakeholder engagement and technical quality.
Faster standardization does not mean lowering the bar, however. Technical experts remain central to ensuring quality, neutrality and technical soundness. Transparency, stakeholder participation and consensus remain essential. The objective is not speed for its own sake, but to provide high-level standards when they are needed.
Rather than replacing European Standards, the EAS adds a new option to the CEN and CENELEC toolbox. It will follow the drafting principles established in the CEN and CENELEC Internal Regulations, while using a streamlined development process adapted to situations in which rapid standardization is particularly important. The aim is to combine greater speed with the principles that underpin European standardization.
The EAS is also timely in the context of the proposal for a New Standardization Regulation recently presented by the European Commission. CEN and CENELEC support the objective of faster, more agile standardization, and the EAS demonstrates that the European Standardization System is already improving its responsiveness from within. Reform should build on this progress and strengthen the independent, consensus-based system.
Building the European Standardization System of the future
The EAS is part of a broader transformation already underway at CEN and CENELEC. These initiatives are making the development and use of standards faster, more efficient and more digitalized:
- Online Standards Development (OSD) is becoming the shared environment for standards authoring, supporting collaboration and more efficient content creation. OSD is already the default in CEN, and it is planned for implementation in CENELEC in 2027.
- SMART standards are moving standards beyond free text towards structured, machine-readable content that can integrate more easily into digital, compliance and industrial workflows.
- Improved processes for harmonized standards are introducing earlier quality checks and greater automation, helping experts identify compliance issues before formal assessment.
- Improvements to the EN development process reduce administrative delays and enable more parallel work, accelerating delivery while preserving consensus and technical quality.
Together, these initiatives modernize the complete standards-development chain: how technical knowledge enters the system, how experts collaborate, how deliverables are developed and how standards can ultimately be used by people and machines.
Improving the system today
The EAS is an example of the approach CEN and CENELEC believe should guide the wider discussion on the future of European standardization: building on a system that works and adapting it to meet Europe’s future needs. This same principle informs CEN and CENELEC’s Standardization Hub: a structured gateway through which high-quality technical specifications can enter the European standardization process under established European governance and consensus-based decision-making.
Together, these developments show that the European Standardization System is already adapting to Europe’s changing needs. As the EU institutions consider its future framework, CEN and CENELEC are delivering practical improvements that increase responsiveness while preserving the foundations that make the European system trusted and effective.
