New approach to enable global leadership of EU standards promoting values and a resilient, green and digital Single Market

The Commission is presenting a new Standardisation Strategy outlining the approach to standards within the Single Market as well as globally. The Strategy is accompanied by a proposal for an amendment to the Regulation on standardization, a report on its implementation, and the 2022 annual Union work program for European standardization. This new Strategy aims to strengthen the EU’s global competitiveness, to enable a resilient, green, and digital economy, and to enshrine democratic values in technology applications.

Standards are the silent foundation of the EU Single Market and global competitiveness. They help manufacturers ensure the interoperability of products and services, reduce costs, improve safety, and foster innovation. Standards are an invisible but fundamental part of daily life: from Wi-Fi frequencies to connected toys or ski bindings, just to mention a few. Standards give confidence that a product or a service is fit for its purpose, is safe, and will not harm people or the environment. Compliance with harmonized standards guarantees that products are in line with EU law.

The fast pace of innovation, our green, and digital ambitions, and the implications of technological standards for the EU democratic values require an increasingly strategic approach to standardization. The EU’s ambitions towards a climate-neutral, resilient, and circular economy cannot be delivered without European standards. Having a strong global footprint in standardization activities and leading the work in key international fora and institutions will be essential for the EU to remain a global standard-setter. By setting global standards, the EU exports its values while providing EU companies with an important first-mover advantage.

Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe Vestager, said: “Ensuring that data is protected in artificial intelligence or ensuring that mobile devices are secure from hacking, rely on standards and must be in line with EU democratic values. In the same way, we need standards for the roll-out of important investment projects, like hydrogen or batteries, and to valorize innovation investment by providing EU companies with an important first-mover advantage.”

Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, said: “Technical standards are of strategic importance. Europe’s technological sovereignty, ability to reduce dependencies, and protection of EU values will rely on our ability to be a global standard-setter. With today’s Strategy, we are crystal-clear on our standardization priorities and create the conditions for European standards to become global benchmarks. We take action to preserve the integrity of the European standardization process, putting European SMEs and the European interest at the center”.

The Strategy presented today proposes five key sets of actions:

1. Anticipate, prioritize and address standardization needs in strategic areas: we need standards faster and in tune with the European innovation and policy agenda. The Commission has identified standardization urgencies as regards COVID-19 vaccine and medicine production, critical raw materials recycling, the clean hydrogen value chain, low-carbon cement, chips certification, and data standards. As of this year, standardization priorities will be clearly identified in the 2022 annual Union work program for European standardization. A High-level Forum will be set up to inform future standardization priorities. The Commission will establish the function of a Chief Standardisation Officer to ensure high-level guidance across the Commission on standardization activities, which will be supported by an EU excellence hub on standards composed of Commission services.
2. Improve the governance and integrity of the European standardization system: European standards, which support EU policy and legislation, must be decided by European players. The Commission is proposing an amendment to the Regulation on standardization to improve the governance in the European standardization system. While the European system will remain open, transparent, inclusive, and impartial, the proposal prescribes that mandates at the request of the Commission to the European standardization organizations must be handled by national delegates – the national standardization bodies – from the EU and the EEA Member States. This will avoid any undue influence of actors from outside the EU and EEA in the decision-making processes during the development of standards for key areas, like cybersecurity or hydrogen standards. The Commission will further pay close attention to the inclusiveness of the system, the role of SMEs and civil society. It calls on the European standardization organizations to modernize their governance structures and will launch a peer review process among the Member States and national standardization bodies to achieve better inclusiveness for civil society, users, and SMEs-friendly conditions for standardization. At the same time, the Commission will launch the evaluation of the Regulation on standardization.
3. Enhance European leadership in global standards: the Commission will work through the High-Level Forum to set up a new mechanism with the EU Member States and national standardization bodies to share information, coordinate and strengthen the European approach to international standardization. The Commission will also pursue more coordination between the EU Member States and like-minded partners. The EU will fund standardization projects in African and the Neighbourhood countries.
4. Support innovation: the Commission is proposing to better tap into the potential of EU-funded research to valorize innovation projects through standardization activities and anticipate early standardization needs. A ‘standardization booster’ to support researchers under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe to test the relevance of their results for standardization, will be launched. The development of a Code of Practice for researchers on standardization will be initiated to strengthen the link between standardization and research/innovation through the European Research Area (ERA), by mid-2022.
5. Enable the next generation of standardization experts: standards rely on the best experts and Europe is facing a generation shift. The Commission will promote more academic awareness on standards, for instance through the future organization of EU University Days and training of researchers.