Today, 5 March 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has delivered its judgment in case C-588/21 P, concerning public access to four harmonised standards under Regulation 1049/2001.
The judgment does not dispute that harmonised standards are protected by copyright.
However, the CJEU does consider that there is an overriding public interest that justifies the disclosure of the harmonised standards in accordance with Regulation 1049/2001, and therefore annuls the European Commission's decision refusing access to the four harmonised standards requested.
CEN and CENELEC, as two of the official European Standardisation Organisations, and their members - the National Standards Bodies and National Committees of 34 European countries - welcome the fact that the Court does not endorse the main contention of the applicants and the Advocate General, who proposed to exclude harmonised standards in general from copyright protection. Neither does the judgment call into question the fact that access to documents under Regulation 1049/2001 is without prejudice to existing copyright legislation that may limit the right of third parties to reproduce or use published documents.
The success of European standardisation has been made possible thanks to the expertise and voluntary contributions of the stakeholders involved from different contexts, including business, public administrations, consumers, business associations, academia and research.
This inclusive system ensures that standards are easy to apply, are constantly adapted to the state of the art, and that many of them are identical to international standards. In this way they provide European companies with a timely and accurate solution to access both the single market and the global market, ensuring compliance with European legislation and increasing competitiveness.
On this basis, the entire CEN and CENELEC community will continue to work closely with the European Commission and all stakeholders involved in European standardisation to adapt our system for the future, for the benefit of the Single Market and for the benefit of European companies and citizens.
