On 13 October, during the IEC Annual General Meeting in Frankfurt, the European Commission organised an event to present and promote the ‘Joint Initiative on Standardisation‘ (JIS) beyond the borders of Europe. The JIS, signed by Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska and actors of the standardisation community on 13 June, sets a common vision, agreed principles and commitments for […]

After three years of debate and two standardisation request attempts, CEN and CENELEC are kicking-off the work to develop European horizontal standards related to material efficiency aspects for Ecodesign products. ECOS participated in the first meeting of the newly-created CEN-CENELEC Joint Working Group (JWG10), which took place in Brussels on 28 September. As part of […]

Frankfurt was the host city of this year’s annual International Electrotechnical Committee General Meeting, which brought together more than 3500 technical experts and other stakeholders to develop and discuss standardisation initiatives, strategy and related topics from the 10 – 14 October 2016.  Among the attendees, ECOS was invited to provide presentations in a high-level policy […]

ECOS was invited to speak and participate in a panel discussion at the Public Policy Exchange event ‘Building a Stronger European Electric Vehicle Market: Promoting Solutions towards Sustainable and Efficient Mobility’, held on 20 September in Brussels. The event brought together policy-makers, stakeholders and experts for a day of discussion and knowledge sharing. ECOS presented […]

With the now successful meeting at Kigali to negotiate an amendment to the Montreal protocol to prevent 0.5 C° of future global warming and eliminate the majority of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), there has been increasing pressure on standards to not obstruct hard-won political achievements. To support this process and the EU Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (F-Gas) Regulation, […]

03/11/2016 NGOs and industry have come together to urge the Energy Union cluster of Commissioners to deliver an ambitious reform of EU energy markets, putting the EU on a course to a brighter, cleaner future. Europe needs faster, more competitive, and better connected energy markets to fully integrate the new energy technologies that are needed […]

2016 has been a year of stagnation for Ecodesign. Activities slowed down increasingly before reaching a full halt after the outcome of Brexit. With the Ecodesign Working Plan 2015-2017 still not published, frustrations are growing, and significant energy savings will be lost, amounting to a whopping €10bn according to ECOS’ estimation, as reported by The […]

On the eve of World Standards Day, the organisations representing societal stakeholders in the European Standardisation System – ANEC, ECOS, and ETUC – brought together representatives of the European institutions, the standardisation community and civil society to examine the degree to which European standards meet the needs of civil society, including in the support standards provide to legislation […]

The European organisation representing the interests of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in standardisation, Small Business Standard (SBS), held its Annual Conference on “Reinforcing the cooperation amongst the standardisation community” in Brussels on 19 October. ECOS Director Laura Degallaix took part in the panel discussion on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 1025/2012, aimed to make the […]

After the election of a new Executive Committee at the ECOS General Assembly in June, the ECOS Secretariat is pleased to announce the re-appointed by the Committee members of Pieter de Pous, Head of the Policy Unit of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), as ECOS’ President. Greg Archer, Clean Vehicles Director at Transport & Environment […]