Search results

Europe is increasingly experiencing the impacts of climate change, with extreme weather events, such as devastating forest fires and catastrophic floods, becoming more frequent across EU Member States. Firefighters and emergency service workers are at the forefront of the response, facing growing risks and challenges in their daily work. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) plays a vital role in protecting these workers from the escalating hazards they encounter.

An important milestone was reached in the implementation of the CEN Online Standards Development tool, with the deployment of the remaining stages of the standard drafting process in collaboration with ISO. The end-to-process from Project Creation to Publication is now available for CEN supported deliverables.

The ETUC has been actively contributing to the work of CEN and CENELEC Joint Technical Committee 21 (JTC21) in the development of two European standards mandated by the European Commission to support the implementation of the AI Act.

Under the title “Europe as a global standard-setter – between AI, alliances and competitive-ness”, Austrian Standards hosted talks on 11 November 2025 as part of the WE NORM THE FUTURE | Summit 2025. Valerie Höllinger, CEO of Austrian Standards, was delighted to welcome more than 300 participants. In her speech, she emphasized that standardization is an essential framework within which Europe's future is taking shape.

The Online Standards Development (OSD) platform, jointly develop by ISO and IEC, aims to replace the Word-based standard development way-of-working with a unique, harmonized and collaborative space for all contributors from the drafting stages all the way through to publication. The project is a cornerstone of the CEN and CENELEC Strategy 2030 Goal 2 “Our customers and stakeholders benefit from state-of-the-art digital solutions”.

ANEC took part in the CEN-CENELEC event, “Setting the Standard: A Strategic Dialogue for an Inclusive Standardization System” on 17 November 2025, where Deputy Director General, Chiara Giovannini, joined a panel of societal and SME representatives. The audience was comprised of CEN-CENELEC members and representatives of the EU institutions.

The ETUC took part in the plenary meeting of the CEN-CENELEC Joint Technical Committee 21 on Artificial Intelligence, held from 18 to 21 November in Copenhagen. The meeting brought together delegates from across Europe, along with international observers, to advance the standards requested by the European Commission to support the implementation of the AI Act’s requirements for high-risk AI systems.

Bitmovin is a successful example of a start-up that managed to scale-up thanks to standardization.

In order to facilitate a consensus-finding process between European and international standards development activities in the electrical sector, CENELEC and IEC formalized the framework of their cooperation through the signature in 1996 of an 'agreement on common planning of new work and parallel voting', known as the Dresden Agreement

From construction sites and chemical manufacturing plants to firefighting and emergency response operations, many workers face hazardous environments where respiratory safety is a matter of life and death. Exposure to dangerous gases, vapours, and airborne particles can lead to serious health consequences and long-term occupational risks, making effective respiratory protection essential. In this context, full-face masks conforming to the European standard EN 136 (‘Respiratory protective devices – Full face masks – Requirements, testing, marking’) provide critical protection by shielding workers against harmful substances in the air.