On Tuesday 12 March, a working meeting was held at the headquarters of the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE), with representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism (MINTUR). The goal was to consolidate the successful relationship maintained for many years between technical standards and national regulations, and to promote the use of standards for compliance with legislation. Technical standards offer strong support for public agencies in the effective development and deployment of regulations.
This is made possible thanks to the mutual trust between the Spanish standardization body and the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, through a successful public-private partnership.
The meeting was opened by Javier García, Director General of UNE and Vice-President of ISO, and José Manuel Prieto, Deputy Director General of Industrial Safety and Quality at MINTUR.
The agenda continued with a round of presentations involving technical staff from both entities, including Paloma García, UNE's Director of Standardization Programmes and Stakeholders, and Daniel Massó, UNE's Head of Knowledge and 2030 Agenda. During the event, the different standard citation models were reviewed, analysing their advantages.
The development of technical standards follows the fundamental principles defined by the World Trade Organization (WTO), as set out in Regulation (EU) 1025/2012 on standardization. These principles are as follows: coherence, transparency, openness, consensus, voluntary application, independence from special interests and efficiency. This has led to the fact that technical standards or regulations have been widely cited in Spanish and European legislation over the last few decades.
