Orgalime comments on Vademecum on European standardisation

Orgalime welcomes the European Commission’s intention to ‘revise and rationalise’ the process of elaborating mandates/requests for standardisation such as “to include a consultation phase with relevant stakeholders and a thorough analysis that justifies the need for new standard-setting activity”.

The 2008 New Legislative Framework that regulates most engineering products works well. We see no need to make changes to the European standardisation system, which complements it satisfactorily, especially in regard to the development time of standards, the supporting activities of European Standards Organisations (ESOs), and the involvement of “New Approach” consultants.

We are deeply concerned about ideas to make greater use of documents that lack consensus, such as those drafted by research institutes or test/certification bodies. Only a coherent standardisation system in Europe and internationally (related to ISO and IEC standards), rooted in consensus, transparency and openness, will be able to support European industry’s competitiveness.

The Vademecum on European standardisation is an important guidance document which should describe, in a form acknowledgeable to all interested parties (including industry and other standardisation stakeholders), the role of standards in support of the application of Union legislation and how Commission services may interact with ESOs to develop standards, when needed.