Press Release: Standards help SMEs to boost their competitiveness

SMEs must get more competitiveness out of standardisation, was the message of the World Standards Day 2006 conference organised by the European Commission on 16 October 2006 in Brussels. The use of voluntary standards to support European legislation on the free circulation of goods has been one of the success stories in building a Single European Market. These standards, developed by the European Standards Organisations CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, contribute to the European Union’s Better Regulation policy as a key element in keeping EU legislation simple and limiting it to the essential elements for the protection of the health and safety of citizens. It is up to the stakeholders themselves, in particular experts from industry, to include in standards the details necessary to comply with the law (this is the so-called New Approach). In the past, SMEs have often considered standardisation a private domain of big companies, and therefore they have not benefited enough from it. Participants of the World Standards Day 2006 discussed better access to easier-to-use standards and how to improve participation of SMEs in standardisation.

European Commission: DG Communication: SPEECH/06/599 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/06/599&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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