Review of the European Standardisation System

Orgalime believes that the revision of the Community legal and financing framework of the European Standardisation System (ESS) can achieve positive results only if it does not change the ESS' voluntary, private and market-driven core features. Therefore the strengthening of the ESS’ ability to meet the needs of innovative companies, including SMEs and society at large should remain the primary responsibility of its members, i.e. the national standards organisations (NSOs) which are closest to the grass roots stakeholders. The duties of authorities should therefore be to provide equitable conditions at national level to help promote, educate and foster the use of standards and voluntary participation in the ESS among all genuinely interested parties. In our view this is the best way to support the competitiveness of our industry.

Standards can be attractive and powerful tools to support internal market legislation, for which regulators alone can set the legally acceptable levels of health, societal and environmental protection.