EU Standardisation Strategy - Reinforcing Europe’s role in global standards-setting

On 19 April SBS organised the online event  ”EU Standardisation Strategy - Reinforcing Europe’s role in global standards-setting”.

The strategy is a package of measures, presented in February by the European Commission, which includes a Communication for an EU Strategy on Standardisation, a technical a report on the implementation of Regulation 1025/2012, the Commission 2022 Annual Union Work Programme for Standardisation and an amendment to Regulation 1025/2012 on European Standardisation.

SBS welcomes and supports the Strategy and its provisions, as many of the outlined principles echo opinions previously expressed by SBS in a number of occasions, including in its Position Paper on the Standardisation Strategy.

The event tackled the two main pillars for action outlined in the strategy: the promotion of a pre-eminent role of Europe in global standardisation the improvement of inclusiveness and governance of the European standardisation system.

The list of speakers for the event included Reinhard Bütikofer, MEP (Greens/EFA, DE), Maitane Olabarria, SBS Secretary General, Elena Santiago, CEN/CENELEC Director General and Silvia Vaccaro, Policy Officer in the Standards Policy Unit at DG GROW.

The proceedings were opened by Ms Vaccaro, who gave a presentation on the strategy itself, its structure and goals, after which the panel discussion started.

Mr Bütikofer offered his perspective on the strategic and geopolitical aspect of the strategy, while the interventions from Ms Olabarría and Ms Santiago focused more on the functioning and governance of the European system and on how to boost the role and participation on SMEs in the standardisation process at the European and international level.

The discussion was followed by a lively and well-attended Q&A session during which a number of questions were posed by the audience to the speakers.

The event provided a frank and interesting forum to exchange opinions from different stakeholders and institutions on the content of the strategy and outline visions and ideas for the implementation of its measures. 

A recording of the event in full is available on the SBS YouTube channel here.