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Europe must change its approach
The Strategy’s title is “Setting global standards in support of a resilient, green and digital EU single market”. The Commission underlines that, over the last 30 years, the European Standardisation System has delivered more than 3600 harmonised standards allowing companies to demonstrate compliance with EU law. However, the standardisation environment is becoming more complex, with third countries taking an assertive stance on standardisation. The Commission points out that the competitiveness and technological sovereignty of the EU, and the protection of its values, will depend on how successful European actors are in standardisation at the international level.
European standardisation must “become more agile, flexible and focused to anticipate the standardisation needs”. The Commission notes that “often private and non-European industry-led consortia are leaner and faster in developing standards”. This is particularly true in the area of new technologies. The Commission recognises that “the strategic importance of standards has not been adequately recognised at the cost of EU leadership in standards-setting. This must change”.
“Standardisation urgencies”, including chip certification
The Commission underlines that there are areas in which standards are critically lacking for Europe to avoid strategic dependencies. The following strategic areas have been identified:
-standards to overcome current obstacles in COVID-19 vaccine and medicine production;
-standards to support the recycling of critical raw materials (CRM);
-standards to support the roll-out of the clean hydrogen value chain;
-standards supporting low-carbon cement given the significant emissions-saving potential;
-standards for the certification of chips in terms of security, authenticity and reliability;
-data standards enhancing data interoperability, data sharing and data re-use in support of the Common European Data Spaces.
Regarding chip certification, the Commission’s Annex to the work programme gives more details on the objectives. The Commission wants to “ensure trust and cybersecurity requirements of future smart devices, systems and connectivity platforms that will have to rely on advanced electronics and will largely depend on the features of the underlying technology. The standards will support certification of these chips for trust and security and cover the value chain up to integration in end products.”
For these standardisation urgencies, the European Commission will launch standardisation requests, engage with the stakeholders and backup the work with financing. The European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs) are invited to prioritise this work without delay.
New High-Level Forum
The Commission will set up a new High-Level Forum composed of Member States, ESOs and National Standardisation Bodies, industry, civil society and academia to help set priorities on future standardisation. This Forum will also be used to coordinate the representation of European interests in international fora. There will also be an annual high-level event involving the European Parliament and the Council.
Together with the High-Level Forum, the Commission will launch a process of reviewing existing standards to identify needs for revisions or new standards.
New EU excellence hub on standards
The European Commission also wants to establish an EU excellence hub on standards to coordinate the existing standardisation expertise within the Commission, EU agencies and Joint Undertakings. The hub will anticipate the standardisation needs and support the work in priority areas. “The hub will make it possible to better respond to public sector requests for the development of guidelines and specifications in areas like eID, eGovernment or the European Blockchain Service Infrastructure”.
The Commission is empowered to adopt technical or common specifications via implementing acts in specific cases. The Commission underlines that this is only the case if harmonised standards are absent and insufficient. The newly created EU excellence hub will provide the technical expertise to develop those common specifications.
In addition, the Commission will create the position of Chief Standardisation Officer to ensure the overall oversight and coordination of the standardisation activities across the Commission.
The special status of ESOs
CEN, CENELEC and ETSI are the only organisations that are eligible to work on standardisation requests. Such a special status entails responsibilities. Measures should be taken to ensure that those harmonised standards promote EU interests and values.
The Commission is concerned that today’s decision-making processes within the European standardisation organisations, in particular in ETSI, allow an uneven voting power to certain corporate interests: some multinationals have acquired more votes than the bodies that represent the entire stakeholder community.
Therefore, good governance needs to be put in place when ESOs act upon a standardisation request. In its proposal to amend Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012, the Commission states that the delegates of the national standardisation bodies of the EU and the EEA must be the ones with the decision-making power in each stage of the development of a standard requested by the Commission.
Thus, the following amendment to Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 is proposed:
Each European standardisation organisation shall ensure that the following decisions concerning European standards and European standardisation deliverables […] are taken exclusively by representatives of the national standardisation bodies within the competent decision-making body of that organisation:
(a) decisions on the acceptance, refusal and execution of standardisation requests;
(b) decisions on the acceptance of new work items;
(c) decisions on the adoption, revision and withdrawal of European standards or European standardisation deliverables.
The proposal for amendment would enter into force six months after its adoption.
A more inclusive and faster process
SME-friendly conditions are foreseen to facilitate SMEs’ access to standardisation work and standards (e.g. free access to draft standards). Standards could also move from texts to machine-readable formats, which are more user-friendly for SMEs.
In short, ESOs have to modernise their governance to be in line with this new Strategy. These measures include addressing the uneven and intransparent representation of industrial interests and increasing the involvement of SMEs, civil society and users. The Commission might propose a new revision of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 if it observes that ESOs fail to take sufficient measures.
The Commission will also launch a peer review among Member States and national standardisation bodies by the end of the year. The objective is to achieve better inclusiveness, including of civil society and users.
The European Commission also wants to reduce the time between the adoption of a harmonised standard and its formal delivery to the Commission.
Being more assertive on the international stage
The Commission observes that “in sensitive areas, like lithium batteries, facial recognition or the digital twin, other world regions are taking the lead in international technical committees promoting their technological solutions, which are often incompatible with the EU’s values, policies and regulatory framework.”
The EU excellence hub on standards will monitor relevant international standardisation activities. Coordination at a political level will take place through the High-Level Forum. The Commission will also provide an EU internet standards monitoring website.
The Commission wants to collaborate with like-minded partners, for instance, with the USA, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. It will continue its dialogue with China, in particular on the Green Deal. The Commission will also promote the adoption of European and international standards by partner regions like Africa or Latin America.
Linking research and standardisation
The Commission wants to link standardisation priorities with pre-normative research, including EU-funded research (Horizon Europe). For instance, EU-funded projects should consider standardisation needs as part of their Key Performance Indicators. Currently, research projects still do not evaluate enough how their results could help standardisation.
Developing skills
The Commission points out that many of the standardisation experts will retire. At the same time, the standardisation landscape requires new skills, for instance, in artificial intelligence, data protection and cybersecurity.
The Commission notes that dedicated standardisation modules in business, law or engineering degrees could play an important role. In addition, the Commission will organise Standardisation University Days to promote standardisation awareness among academics and students.
More transparency
To improve transparency, the Commission will publish an annual dashboard on the planned, current and completed standardisation activities.
Next steps
In the Annex to the work programme, the Commission lists the upcoming standardisation requests. On top of the standardisation urgencies/priorities, the following areas will be covered:
-Standards in support of blockchain services infrastructure
-Cybersecurity of radio equipment
-Safe and trustworthy AI systems
-Digital passports for products and services
-eInvoicing
-Quick Response code for instant payments at Point Interaction
If you have any questions on this topic, please do not hesitate to contact Camille Dornier - Policy Manager: camille.dornier@eurosmart.com
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