On 31 January, CEN and CENELEC replied to the call for evidence launched by the European Commission on the upcoming Single Market Strategy. This Strategy aims to modernize the Single Market to better support European competitiveness and innovation. CEN and CENELEC, as two of the three official European Standardization Organizations (ESOs), took this opportunity to outline standardization’s important contribution to the Single Market and how standardization can be used to support the goals of this strategy.
CEN and CENELEC have always been committed to the well-functioning of the Single Market. European standards play a decisive role to build trust, by ensuring products and services meet the highest levels of quality and helping users comply with European legislation through harmonized standards. The longstanding public-private partnership between CEN, CENELEC and the European Union has enabled the growth of the Single Market and as well facilitated cross-border trade.
In this Discussion Paper, CEN and CENELEC elaborates on why standardization is essential to the Single Market and provide recommendations on how to best utilise the benefits of standardization to strengthen the Single Market Strategy.
In particular, CEN and CENELEC ask that the European Commission:
- Consider standardization’s importance to economic competitiveness and productivity
- Ensure the long-term stability of the public-private partnership
- Adopt a consistent approach to standardization across different initiatives.
- Ensure that new legislation, where relevant, reference standards through the NLF
Read the full position paper here.
