Alors qu’une augmentation de la coopération entre les organismes de normalisation au niveau international est à prévoir dans les prochaines années, les acteurs de la...
Standardisation and Policy
The link between standards and policy, sometimes unclear
In the European Union (EU), standardisation is more and more often used as a tool for implementing EU legislation and policies, including in the environmental area. Although ECOS acknowledges the important role that standards can play, we believe that standards should exclusively be used in European policy to provide technical specifications and details, allowing compliance with legal requirements (e.g. harmonised methodologies for measuring the energy efficiency of products). ECOS believes that major societal and environmental challenges ought to be addressed in legislation is priority, unless it is proven that standards are the most appropriate tools to address them.
Inclusiveness and transparency of the standardisation system: Myth or reality?
ECOS welcomed the adoption of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 on European standardisation, which aims to modernise and improve the European standards’ setting process, speeding it up and making it more transparent and inclusive. The Regulation requires the EU to support the European stakeholders’ organisations involved in standardisation (such as ECOS) and set political expectations for the strengthening of the voice of societal interests in the standards’ development process. Among others, the EU committs to the continued financing of the representation of the public interest in the European Standardisation System (ESS). The Regulation also requires that the European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs, including CEN, CENELEC and ETSI) and the National Standardisation Bodies (NSBs), to ensure balanced representation and effective participation of societal stakeholders at both a European and a national level.
In reality however, ECOS regrets that the system does not currently guarantee such effective participation of societal stakeholders, neither at European nor national level. Supported by its 38 member organisations, ECOS advocates for a truly inclusive and transparent standards’ setting process which delivers standards reflecting societal and environmental interests most appropriately.
Together with its fellow organisations representing the interests of consumers, ANEC, and workers ETUC, ECOS takes part in related political and strategic discussions with the EU institutions, the Member States and the governance bodies of the standards’ organisations.
Latest Posts
Does international cooperation impact the transparency and inclusiveness of the standards development process?
While cooperation between standardisation organisations is expected to strengthen over the next decade, civil society organisations are concerned about the impacts such cooperation would have...

Anti-climactic release of revised Circular Economy Package – The loop stays open
ECOS regrets that today’s release of the revised Circular Economy Package presents a package with many future intentions and few binding initiatives. While the Commission...

Standards and Legislation: ISO-IEC-UNECE conference
ECOS participated in the ISO-IEC-UNECE conference on 2 November, which aimed to explore the benefits of referencing standards in regulations, and how standards can help...

A Common Language for a Sustainable Future – World Standards Day
Today on the annual World Standards Day, the spotlight is put on “A Common Language”. ECOS believes that standards can contribute towards developing a common...
An effective contribution of societal stakeholders to ensure good quality standards
ECOS, ANEC and ETUC, the three organisations representing the societal interests in standardisation, have just made concrete recommendations to the governance bodies of CEN, CENELEC and...

Improving the system – Friends of the Standardisation Roundtable
The Friends of the Standardisation Roundtable, held on the 1st of July 2015, sought to build on the Independent Review report and look at further...

Expert Training: Environmental Standards
On the 22nd of October in Brussels, CEN-CENELEC will be providing a training, helping environmental experts explore both CEN & CENELEC and international standardisation processes. The...

The Future of Standardisation
The current EU political context promotes the principle of “Better Regulation” and views standards as an important tool that can support EU legislation and policies,...

ECOS Annual Workshop 2015 – Standards for an energy efficient, circular economy
On the 1st of July, policy makers, stakeholders and industry came together at the ECOS Annual Workshop to discuss how standards can support an energy...

ECOS makes recommendations for the Union work programme for standardisation 2016
ECOS has just issued recommendations for making the Union work programme for European standardisation deliver on major environmental policy objectives in 2016. Overall the actions by...

ECOS becomes a member of ETSI!
ECOS is pleased to announce that membership has been granted to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The European Standardisation Organisation is responsible for the...