On Friday 11 February, CEN and CENELEC were happy to host Kerstin Jorna, Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), at their Brussels headquarters.
Ms Jorna was accompanied by other DG GROW’s officials: Mr Gwenole Cozigou, Director, Directorate H - Construction & machinery; Ms Sophie Müller, Deputy head of Unit, Directorate H; and Ms Natalia Zebrowska, Assistant to the Director General, DG GROW. The Commission’s delegation in turn was welcomed by CEN and CENELEC’s Presidents, respectively Mr Stefano Calzolari and Mr Wolfgang Niedziella; CEN and CENELEC’s Director General, Ms Elena Santiago Cid; and the Director for Policy and Partnerships, Andreea Gulacsi.
This meeting was an opportunity for the organisations to exchange views on the future of European standardization and on their mutual public-private-partnership, based on the newly released European Standardization Strategy. CEN and CENELEC’s Presidents, who began their mandates at the beginning of January 2022, manifested their strong desire for collaboration and cooperation with the European Commission, to support the shared ambition for Europe to become more of “a standard-maker, not a standard-taker”. They also reaffirmed the role of standards as a bottom-up and industry-driven tool to contribute to a resilient green and digital transformation of the EU’s industrial ecosystem.
Another topic highlighted was the importance of strengthening Europe’s leadership in standard-setting to support the global competitiveness of European companies, especially in strategic industries such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, hydrogen, batteries and industrial data. To this end, international standardization is key: CEN and CENELEC will build on the good relationship with their international counterparts, respectively ISO and IEC, to develop aligned European initiatives, reinforce concerted influence and exert global leadership.
All these ambitions are also in line with CEN and CENELEC’s own Strategy 2030. This forward-looking document will guide the two organisations and their 43 members in 34 European countries over the next decade, in order to make Standardization better fit for the future.
Based on this shared commitment, CEN, CENELEC and the Commission agreed to work together on a series of Joint Actions, to achieve a more resilient, more sustainable and stronger Europe.
Read the PR on the European Standardization Strategy here.
Giovanni COLLOT
gcollot@cencenelec.eu
