The Spanish Association for Standardization, UNE, together with its Italian counterpart, the Italian Electrotechnical Committee (CEI), and the president of CENELEC, Riccardo Lama, have met with ORGALIM to learn about the European industry's position on the evolution of the European regulatory framework for standardisation.
The meeting highlighted that the industry requires legal certainty to support their investments and a regulatory framework that encourages innovation. To this end, it is essential that the European Commission expedite the deadlines for publishing standards in the Official Journal of the European Union and maintain the harmonised standards mechanism as the preferred route for presumption of conformity, while preserving the principles of the current regulatory model (NLF).
Any departure from this regulatory model, as could be interpreted by the so-called ‘Common Specifications’, would add legal uncertainty and move away from the industry's natural leadership in the development of standards, and should therefore be avoided or, at most, dealt with exceptionally only in cases where harmonised standards are not feasible.
With regard to the standardisation system, it is essential to improve the efficiency of the system with more agile and flexible standard development that allows industry to have standards when the market demands them and facilitates timely responses to Commission requests, while maintaining European leadership in international standardisation.
Many of these aspects are included in the joint statement prepared by various European business organisations in relation to the Common Specifications.
The meeting was attended by the president of ORGALIM, Javier Ormazábal; the president of UNE, Alfredo Berges; the president of CENELEC, Riccardo Lama; Director General of UNE and member of the CEN Management Board, Javier García; CEO of AFME and member of the CENELEC Management Board, Óscar Querol; the Director General of CEI, Paolo Tazzioli; the general director of ORGALIM, Ulrich Adam; the Advisor to the President of Ormazábal, Guillermo Amann; and the Director of Cooperation and International Relations at UNE, Mónica Sanzo.
Orgalim represents Europe's technology industries, comprising 770,000 companies that generate an annual turnover of €2.755 trillion and directly employ 11.6 million people across Europe.
