Communication on European standards for the 21st century

European standards contribute to Single Market integration and thus to ensuring job creation, overall growth of the EU economy, increased competitiveness, innovation and industrial leadership. Deepening the Single Market means extending the level playing field for economic operators, notably through technical harmonisation.

From goods to services and information and communication technologies (ICT), standards have proven to be a flexible way of raising quality and safety, improving transparency and interoperability, reducing costs and opening up markets for businesses, especially SMEs. Standards benefit consumers, companies and society at large.

The European Standardisation System (ESS) has been successful until now to issue high quality and efficient standards, while placing Europe on the global stage. Industry supports the European standards development and their regular revision to take into account state-of-the-art technologies. In addition, the interaction between European and international standardisation is constant: sometimes, European standards are proposed to international standardisation organisations, sometimes, international standards become European ones. This dialogue is important as it makes it easier for companies to go global, notably SMEs.

However, the standardisation environment is changing. New technologies and the progressive integration of digital solutions in industrial global value chains, as well as the fast evolving international context are putting pressure on the ESS which can still be leveraged to contribute more to EU jobs and growth. A new momentum is needed to respond effectively to the standards needs of industry, consumers and other stakeholders. Building on that new momentum ensures that Europe remains a global hub for standardisation.

In this Communication, the Commission sets out its vision for a single and efficient ESS that adapts to the changing environment, supports multiple policies and brings benefits to companies, consumers and workers alike. The Communication also puts into context the Joint Initiative on Standardisation as a direct delivery of the Single Market Strategy. It is accompanied by documents exploring different facets of European standardisation such as an evaluation report and the annual Union work programme for 2017.

The Joint Initiative is complemented by two other documents, more concretely addressing key areas for standardisation which have a cross-cutting impact on economic development: the European Commission Communication on ICT standardisation priorities for the Digital Single Market adopted in April 2016 as part of the Digital Single Market technologies and public services modernisation package (the "April ICT standards Communication") and a Staff Working Document on standards for services, which accompanies this Communication.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Commission takes steps to modernise EU's standardisation policy http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-commission-takes-steps-to-modernise-eus-standardisation-policy/

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)186: Tapping the potential of European service standards to help Europe's consumers and businesses http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:186:FIN

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