Press Release: Standards to boost innovation and competitiveness

Standardisation can make an important contribution to the development of sustainable industrial policy, unlock the potential of innovative markets and strengthen the position of European economy through more efficient capitalising of its knowledge basis. These were the main conclusions of a European Commission communication 'Towards an increased contribution from standardisation to innovation in Europe' published on 11 March, 2008. It identified the most important challenges faced, presented concrete objectives for standardisation and the use of standards, and consolidated on-going efforts and proposed measures to be launched both by relevant stakeholders and by the Commission. The communication identified key elements for focusing EU standardisation policy on innovation such as commitment to market-led standardisation and to the voluntary use of standards, inclusion of new knowledge in standards or access to standardisation of all interested stakeholders, in particular small and medium enterprises, but also consumers and researchers.