Standardization in support of civil-defence synergies: read CEN and CENELEC’s new Position Paper

CEN and CENELEC published a new Position Paper to respond to the Action Plan presented by the European Commission on synergies between civil, defence and space industries.

The Action Plan recognises standardization as a building block towards the successful achievement of its overall objectives. More specifically, Action 5 aims to elaborate a plan to promote the use and development of hybrid civil/defence standards before the end of 2022. Through their Position Paper, CEN and CENELEC, as two of the officially recognised European Standards Organizations, wish to contribute to this important development by sharing the present and potential contributions of European Standards to solving the challenges outlined in the Action Plan.

First of all, CEN and CENELEC can build upon an already established and successful civil-defence collaboration in standardization, as illustrated by their good relationship with the European Defence Agency (EDA) and the EDSTAR database.

Furthermore, in their Paper, CEN and CENELEC raise awareness on how they support European capabilities through extensive standardization of the critical technologies outlined in the Action Plan. Another important part of their work consists of promoting synergies between EU innovation and research programmes and standardization, thus fostering the quick access to market of new technologies.

In addition, thanks to the European Standardization System, unique in the world, CEN and CENELEC provide an inclusive platform by involving all stakeholders in the innovation and standardization process. The structure of CEN and CENELEC allows it to facilitate the cross-sector coordination of the security, defence and space fields, by convening existing and new stakeholders in an agile way.

Based on all this, CEN and CENELEC welcome the important place given to standardization in the Action Plan and are looking forward to working together with the European Commission on the future of Europe’s defence.

The Position Paper is available on CEN and CENELEC’s website.

Do you want to know more about this topic?

Then follow CEN and CENELEC’s dedicated webinar that will take place on 28 February. This workshop will discuss the role of standards in the implementation of this Action Plan, and identify supporting activities by the standardisation domain and other related stakeholders.

More information on the event's page.