Europe faces growing geopolitical pressures and a rapidly evolving defence landscape. To build a resilient and competitive European defence sector, standardization must be integrated early and systematically into defence policy, planning, procurement, and capability development.
The war in Ukraine has made defence a top priority for Europe. Numerous policies focus on increasing European defence capabilities through greater cooperation and coordination of national defence forces, developing measures for interoperability, joint procurement, reducing industrial fragmentation, and strengthening supply chains.
The current lack of a dedicated, strategic framework for European defence standardization is an important opportunity to engage defence stakeholders and ensure standardization is focused on meeting their urgent and long-term needs.
Call to Action: EU institutions, Member States, EDA, NATO actors, and industry should embed standardization in defence initiatives from the beginning, allowing the ability to align funding and procurement procedures with standards, and therefore coordinate through the ESS to avoid ad-hoc, non-European solutions.
Our Position: CEN and CENELEC underline the possible key role of European standards in European defence policy to ensure interoperability, technological sovereignty, and a strong industrial base across the Single Market.
Strategic Need: Fragmentation, duplication, and scattered information on existing
dual-use standards prevent efficient cooperation, driving costs, increasing delays, and creating unnecessary risks. The conditions for the defence community to coordinate standardization needs and priorities is essential for strengthening European defence capabilities.
Value Proposition: The European Standardization System (ESS) provides a neutral, consensus-based platform that delivers industry-driven technical solutions through European standards. Standards accelerate the adoption of civil innovations for defence use while strengthening the Single Market.
Whitney CLARK
wclark@cencenelec.eu
