The crisis generated by the pandemic has led to an extraordinary European Union plan to stimulate economic recovery, known as Next Generation EU. Spain is to receive €140 billion of this funding.
In our country, the EU plan has given rise to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which includes Strategic Projects for the Economic Recovery and Transformation (known by its Spanish acronym PERTE), one of its main instruments.
These are large-scale projects (known as 'tractor projects') with sectoral transformation capacity and with a broad impact on productivity, employment and territory, and contribute to the dual green and digital transition.
Standardisation is a strategic tool for achieving the success of these transformative projects. Technical standards reflect the consensus of experts on best practices, contributing to economic growth and the improvement of the competitiveness of the economic sectors.
The EU itself has underlined the essential role of standardisation in advancing the current economic recovery of Europe and in achieving a more competitive industry.
This contribution is built on the foundations of existing standards, but what can really help transform the industry is the conversion of innovative developments into new standards that can influence all productive sectors, both nationally and internationally.
Support for objectives
Using standardisation in PERTE projects will help companies to attain some of their requirements, such as:
- Not limiting the benefits to the companies or the sector directly involved in the project, but to have greater relevance and application in the economy or society through defined carry-over effects.
- To allow the wide dissemination of the knowledge acquired.
- To have a structural nature in the territory, with an impact on all autonomous communities.
Standardisation is the path traditionally used by industry for these objectives, although it is now necessary to apply it in an innovative environment, which requires considering and planning it from the earliest stages. No such project should begin without having a clear vision, planning and resources to use the standardisation pathway.
The Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE), represents the interests of Spanish companies and society in European and international standardisation organisations. Therefore, it is down to the productive sectors and public administrations to actively contribute, with our public-private partnership model, to the success of these initiatives.
