CEN and CENELEC welcome the Spanish Presidency and its ambitions to build a closer Europe

The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union begins on the 1^st of July and will end in December 2023, under the motto “Europe, closer”. The Spanish Presidency has the ambition to reinforce the Council of the European Union’s work on important topics such as reindustrialisation, the climate emergency, economic governance, social policy and European unity.

As two of the officially recognised European Standardization Organizations (ESOs), CEN and CENELEC, together with their Spanish member UNE, are excited to see what opportunities the upcoming Presidency brings to highlight the importance of standardization and how they can best support the goals of the Spanish Presidency.

1. Reindustrialise the EU and ensure its open strategic autonomy

The Spanish Presidency aims to promote the growth of strategic industries in Europe through stronger supply chains and expanded trade relationships to avoid excessive dependencies on third countries. A key aspect of this will be proposing a strategy to ensure EU economic, security and global leadership by 2030.

European standards play an essential role in facilitating global trade while ensuring that products from third countries that enter the Single Market meet European quality expectations. CEN and CENELEC also believe in the importance of cooperating with standardization bodies around the world to share best practices and have established partnerships with key regional and national standardization bodies outside Europe. This includes partnerships with the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC), the African Organisation for Standardization (ARSO), the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and many more.

2. Advance in the green transition and the environmental adaptation

The Spanish Presidency will continue to advance the green transition and strengthen the EU’s fight against climate change. Key initiatives include electricity market reform, the gas and hydrogen package, reducing waste and microplastics, and measures for the generation of green fuels.

On this issue, CEN and CENELEC are proud signatories of the London Declaration, which commits the international standardization community to contribute to the achieving targets set by the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). They also set up the Strategic Advisory Body on Environment (SABE) to deal with the strategic links between challenges related to the environment and climate change and standardization.

3. Promoting greater social and economic justice

The Spanish Presidency aims to ensure that Europe’s economic growth benefits all. For this reason, it plans to work to create a thriving yet fair economy through advocating for fighting tax evasion, promoting transparency, increasing sustainability of public finances, and improving workers’ rights.

A strong European standardization system can be a major factor in promoting economic growth in Europe. Standardization has been a driver for economic growth in many countries: a recent study estimates that standards have led to increases in GDP of 2,6 billion euros annually in the Nordics and the Netherlands combined. The European Standardization system also considers the expertise of civil society like Annex III partners, which ensures that the development of standards will always include a social perspective.

4. Strengthening European unity

The Spanish Presidency believes that European unity is crucial to finding the necessary solutions to the myriad of challenges facing the continent. Fostering this unity is its final priority. This includes the need to deepen the Single Market, ensuring a functioning Capital Markets Union, better migration management, and supporting Ukraine.

The European Single Market has brought many benefits to the lives of Europeans by facilitating the seamless movement of goods, services and people. CEN and CENELEC are proud of the role that standards play in this success: we are currently celebrating the 30 year anniversary of the Single Market through our 30 years of standards supporting the Single Market campaign.

We look forward to increasing the visibility of standardization as an enabler of the objectives of the Spanish Presidency. In particular, we looking forward to a special event that will take place on 10 October: under the title “Standardization: A Strategic Instrument for the Climate and Digital Transition”, it has already offered us the possibility to make standardization relevant in the frame of the official program of the Presidency.