Alignment of European and International standardisation workshop

Orgalim is organising a workshop as part of the High-Level Forum on European Standardisation on Wednesday 11 October from 9.30 to 17.00 at Orgalim office, Boulevard A Reyers 80 - B1030 Brussels. 

For over 30 years, the EU has played a leading role in setting global standards, promoting technological leadership, and aligning European and international standards to enhance the competitiveness of EU companies. The Vienna and Frankfurt agreements have reinforced this commitment to prioritize international standards over regional ones. However, recent changes in the geopolitical landscape have seen increased participation from other countries, including strategic competitors, in international standardization committees, potentially leading to discrepancies in standards suitable for the EU market. To address this, the EU is pursuing a strategic approach to international standardization to safeguard its global competitiveness, security, and values. Workstream 4 of the High-Level Forum (HLF) – led by Orgalim and comprising a group of interested HLF members across the whole stakeholder spectrum – explores the "international first" principle, examining its impact on open strategic autonomy and technological sovereignty, and considers solutions to ensure that international standards align with the EU Single Market's unique requirements, especially in new technology areas where EU values are at stake. 

The workshop is an opportunity to analyse and discuss in more depth the processes around alignment between European and international standards. There will be two plenary sessions, one on how the “international first” principle works, based on the Vienna and Frankfurt agreement, and one on the EU approach to international standardisation and the principle of technological sovereignty, taking AI standardisation as a case study. The plenaries will be followed by breakout sessions to further discuss some of the questions around these themes. 

About the HLF: The High-Level Forum on European Standardisation (the forum) is part of the EU Strategy on Standardisation. The purpose of the forum is to identify standardisation priorities in support of EU policies and legislation, and discuss horizontal issues such as international leadership, education and skills and pre-normative challenges, in a multi-stakeholder setting. 

A 'Sherpa' sub-group supports the forum as the main operational body dealing with the technical preparatory work undertaken and later endorsed by the forum. 

Please note that seats are limited for in-person attendance.