NEWS
CEN and CENELEC warmly welcome the European Commission’s Gender Equality Strategy 2026–2030, published in March 2026. The Strategy reaffirms gender equality as a core value of the European Union and sets out a comprehensive framework of actions to advance equality between women and men in all their diversity.
Every year, the World Bank publishes a World Development Report (WDR) on a specific topic. The 2025 WDR focuses on standards, offering a comprehensive assessment of today’s global landscape and ways they can be used to accelerate economic development.
On 23 April, we celebrate World Book Day—a moment to appreciate the power of books to transport us to new and exciting worlds. Books allow us to experience different perspectives, broaden our horizons, and often offer a way to escape the real world and find respite in imagined lands. Did you know that numerous standards exist to help make your reading experience seamless, no matter what format you choose to immerse yourself in a story?
Last year, Standards Norway carried out a dedicated project to improve the information provided to prospective and newly appointed participants in standardization work. The objective was to streamline communication and ensure that committee members receive clear, accurate, and relevant information.
On 13 November, CEN and CENELEC revealed the winners of this year’s Standards+Innovation awards at the European Commission’s flagship event titled “From knowledge to impact: Shaping Europe’s next innovation wave”.
Standards are a proven instrument to operationalize EU legislation while reducing regulatory burdens and supporting SMEs. By building on the New Legislative Framework (NLF), the CEA can rely on harmonized standards to provide presumption of conformity with legal requirements, while leaving room for innovation. The consultation has identified barriers to a more integrated circular economy, including divergent classifications of waste and secondary raw materials, weak competitiveness of recyclates, insufficient transparency on recyclability and material composition, and resource loss due to inefficient collection, sorting and data gaps. Today, divergent national practices undermine the single market. Standards can directly address these challenges by establishing common definitions, quality criteria and testing methods across Europe.
Halloween may be the season of ghosts and ghouls, but when it comes to safety and sustainability, there is nothing spooky about European Standards. From glowing pumpkins to compostable candy wrappers, standards help make sure that our celebrations stay both fun and responsible.
From podcasts to board games, Standards Norway is finding creative new ways to bring standardization to life. Whether exploring the implications of the EU AI Act, simulating consensus-building around the table, or offering online learning for businesses, these initiatives make standards more relevant, interactive, and inspiring than ever.
On World Standards Day 2025, CEN, CENELEC, EA, EURAMET, EUROLAB, PROSAFE and WELMEC come together to celebrate the vital role of partnerships in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year’s theme, "Partnerships for the Goals" (SDG 17), highlights how collaboration is the key driver for progress across all other goals.
European Commission’s Omnibus Directive ‘Aligning product legislation with the digital age’ proposes uniform alternative options to give businesses legal certainty regarding compliance with EU rules, where harmonized standards do not exist or are not available.
CEN and CENELEC support the European Commission’s efforts to harmonize criteria for issuing common specifications. However, it is critical that the process is done in a way that ensures the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders, from societal stakeholders to Member States and industry as they are the actors who will later enforce and follow specifications to gain access to the internal market.