Brussels, 22 May 2025 – SBS welcomes new Single Market Strategy’s focus on standardisation and simplification for SMEs
Small Business Standards (SBS), the association representing SMEs in standardisation, supports the Commission’s direction to simplify EU rules, promote digitalisation, and reinforce the role of standards, while stressing the need for inclusive and balanced stakeholder participation in the development of standards and common specifications.
SBS welcomes the publication of the Single Market Strategy by the European Commission. The new strategy, launched alongside the Omnibus IV package, outlines key initiatives to simplify the Single Market for European companies and SMEs. SBS supports the Strategy’s commitment to:
- Building a simpler, more SME-friendly Single Market by reducing regulatory fragmentation and unnecessary administrative burdens
- Strengthening the role of standards as a tool to support innovation, compliance and market access
- Reforming the New Legislative Framework (NLF) and advancing the digitalisation of the Single Market, with SME needs in focus.
SBS particularly welcomes the recognition of standardisation as essential to the functioning of the Single Market and looks forward to contributing to the revision of Regulation 1025/2012 on European standardisation, scheduled to start in the coming weeks. However, SBS also cautions that improving timeliness must not come at the expense of inclusive and balanced stakeholder participation.
SBS highlights the need to:
- Avoid excessive pressure on speed that could put SMEs at a disadvantage in standardisation processes.
- Preserve the primacy of harmonised standards over fallback instruments such as common specifications and clarify the process for stakeholder involvement in their development.
- Ensure a fully inclusive process in any upcoming reforms of the European Standardisation System, maintaining the progress made under Annex III of the current Standardisation Regulation.
- Provide SMEs with adequate support to adapt to digitalisation, including the rollout of the Digital Product Passport.
Maitane Olabarria, SBS Secretary General, commented: “Standards are vital for SMEs to drive innovation and access the Single Market. This is why we must build on and improve the strong foundations of the current European standardisation system. We support the Commission’s aim to provide legal certainty through alternative approaches when needed, but never at the cost of transparency and inclusiveness. Clearer rules on stakeholder involvement in developing common specifications are urgently needed”.
Read the full SBS reaction to the Single Market Strategy HERE.