Regulation on future of European Standardisation
+++ Rapporteur of the European Parliament presents draft report +++ Parliament members preparing suggestions for amendments +++ European Council working group to deal with amendments suggested by the Member States +++
(Berlin, 2012-01-16) At the beginning of January 2012 the Rapporteur of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), Lara Comi, presented a draft report on the proposal for a new regulation on European Standardisation. Ms Comi (EPP, Italy) focused on:
- Facilitating access to standards and enhancing the participation of SMEs in the standard-setting process
- Ensuring the participation of public authorities in European standardisation
- Enabling the participation of societal stakeholders in European standardisation
- Standardisation in the areas of services
- Improving and accelerating the European standard-setting process through more transparency and consultation
- ICT technical specifications
- Financing
For each of these topics Ms Comi has made concrete amendments to the European Commission's proposal for a new regulation which had been presented in mid-2011. DIN and German stakeholders active in standardisation welcome the fact that Ms Comi wants to incorporate the principle of national delegation into the regulation as a cornerstone of the European standardisation system. "We have been successful in convincing political decision-makers in Brussels of the advantages of the national delegation principle, which helps lower barriers to participation in standards work for many interest groups, particularly SMEs, consumer representatives or those involved in environmental protection," said Dr. Torsten Bahke, DIN Director, summing up discussions in which DIN had taken part in Brussels.
Members of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection are being called upon to make further amendments to the proposal over the next few weeks, taking Ms Comi's draft report as a basis. Representatives of the EU Member States are also developing their own amendments to the proposal within the framework of a European Council working group. It is expected that the Regulation will be adopted in the first half of 2012 and will come into effect at the beginning of 2013.
Throughout the entire consultation process for drawing up the Regulation, DIN has served as a representative of German interests in standardisation. Together with the BDI, BITKOM and DKE, DIN has also proposed a process of legitimizing the work results of fora and consortia in the ICT sector. A detailed version of this proposal has been recently adopted and presented to the European Commission.