Annual Union Work Programme for Standardisation 2022 not without gaps – read our comments!
Each year the European Commission publishes an Annual Work Programme for European standardisation. It lays down the Commission’s intentions to use standardisation in support of new or existing legislation and policies, and mandate the development of new standardisation deliverables to the European Standardisation Organisations CEN, CENELEC and ETSI.
We have just submitted our comments on the preliminary Work Programme for 2022, highlighting:
- The gaps we have identified in the Commission’s plans to use standardisation in support of new or existing legislation and policies, and
- The need to reinstate a specific clause on inclusiveness in the AUWP, as only through a wide representation of actors, such as environmental NGOs, can standards truly serve societal and market needs.
In a nutshell, we support the overall coverage of proposed activities in key environmental areas, such as natural refrigerants, air quality and industrial emissions, batteries, and Ecodesign of energy-related products. However, we also wish to flag a number of crucial gaps in the current draft of the Work Programme. The European Commission needs to ensure that standards effectively contribute to meeting EU policy and legislative requirements in all key areas which will need new standards in support of the European Green Deal. These include, for example, microplastics, textiles, or waste electrical and electronic equipment, currently absent from the draft.
Would you like to learn more? READ OUR POSITION HERE
