On Wednesday, 9 February, Elena Santiago Cid, CEN and CENELEC’s Director General, participated as a speaker to the high-level panel “Standardisation in support of the twin transition of industrial SMEs”. The debate was organised by the European Commission in the framework of the EU Industry Days, Europe’s flagship annual event dedicated to the European industry. In particular, the 2022 edition was focussed on the industry’s role in the EU’s twin digital and green transition.
Mrs Santiago Cid shared the stage with other high-level guests coming from the European institutions and SMEs representatives: MEP Reinhard Bütikofer; Samuele Broglio, Vice President for External Relation at Small Business Standards (SBS); Sebastiano Toffaletti, Secretary General of the European DIGITAL SME Alliance; and Véronique Willems, Secretary General of SMEunited. The discussion was moderated by Gwenole Cozigou, Director for Construction & Machinery at DG GROW.
In her intervention, Elena Santiago Cid shared CEN and CENELEC’s commitment to inclusiveness and to promoting the role of SMEs. She presented the many tools the two organisations have established to foster SMEs’ participation and their efforts to increase the inclusiveness of the European Standardization System (ESS): after all, she reminded, “the strength and uniqueness of the ESS is in its ability to be open and inclusive to all stakeholders”. These efforts will continue in the coming years, in the framework of the focus dedicated to SMEs engagement by the newly released European Standardization Strategy.
Mrs Santiago Cid also talked about the relevant support European standards can provide to the twin green and digital transition: she pointed out how CEN and CENELEC are involved in developing standards across sectors to contribute to the digitalisation and greening of the European economy, such as Climate-adaptable and resilient European infrastructure, Circular economy, Data interoperability or Artificial intelligence.
The debate, following the publication by the Commission of the new Standardization Strategy, provided a precious opportunity to continue the conversation and exchange on the benefits of standardization for SMEs.
Whitney CLARK
wclark@cencenelec.eu
