| | | | | | SMEs at the heart of European standardisation | | SBS launches its "Manifesto for the 2024-2029 EU term"
The new political mandate of the EU institutions, along with the ongoing evaluation of Regulation 1025/2012 on European standardisation and the calls for a stronger and more competitive Single Market of the Letta and Draghi reports, put SMEs and standardisation at a crossroads. Understanding the crucial importance of this moment, at the end of September SBS published its “Manifesto for the 2024-2029 EU term - SMEs at the heart of European standardisation”.
The Manifesto opens with a timely reminder of the importance of standards as a cornerstone of the Single Market and as an indispensable tool to make EU policies operational and for SMEs to ensure conformity and compliance with national and European legislation.
The core of the Manifesto are 6 main calls for action, tackling all aspects of European standardisation, from the inclusiveness and robust funding of the system as a whole, to the importance for SMEs harmonised standards and the use of standards to fully harness the opportunities of the twin transition.
The SBS calls for action are: | | - Ensure a more inclusive standardisation system that makes the Single Market work better for everyone.
- Secure robust funding for standardisation and SME participation and support European global leadership in standards.
- Promote SME-friendly digital and sustainability standards, letting SMEs fully harness the opportunities of the twin transition.
- Ensure the timely development and citation of harmonised standards, which are key for SME growth.
- Invest in the uptake and implementation of standards by SMEs to help them thrive.
- Fully implement Regulation 1025/2012 on European standardisation, rather than revising it.
| | Each of the calls for action is accompanied by targeted, concrete recommendations to achieve the listed goals, aimed at the European Commission and the co-legislators.
SBS will reiterate these crucial messages in all upcoming political activities and fora, from the High-Level Forum on European standardisation to the ongoing evaluation process of Regulation 1025/2012, to keep ensuring that the voice and interests of European SMEs in standardisation are represented and upheld. | | | |
SBS is granted Right of Opinion in CEN and CENELEC | | | |
HLF Workstream Report on inclusiveness in national standardisation published
In September, a report and a set of recommendations, produced by the Workstream 3 on inclusiveness in national standardisation of the High-Level Forum on European standardisation (HLF), was published after receiving the endorsement of all members of the HLF.
The workstream saw the participation of around 20 organisations, including national governments, European standardisation organisations, European Commission, industry and societal stakeholders.
The publication of the report and the recommendations is a great result for SBS, as co-leaders of the workstream along with CEN-CENELEC, and lead drafters of the two documents. The reports and recommendations are the final result of a series of questionnaires, one-to-one interviews and workshops that brought together representatives from national governments, national standardisation bodies (NSBs), SMEs, industry, societal stakeholders and academia.
The report analyses in detail several main aspects of inclusiveness and participation of all kinds of stakeholders in standardisation at national level, namely:
- Conditions and measures for stakeholder access.
- Conditions and measures for balanced and effective participation of all stakeholders already involved in national standardisation.
- Obstacles and proposals for access and participation.
- Existing national best practices.
The report is accompanied by a set of targeted and concrete recommendations, aimed at European Commission, national standardisation bodies, national governments and stakeholders, to boost access and participation and make national standardisation more inclusive and more representative of the needs and interests of all the different stakeholder communities. | | | |
Join the Stand4EU Portal and Stand4EU Final Event
The STAND4EU project, to which SBS is a partner has developed the STAND4EU Portal, a collaborative platform that is bridging the worlds of research, innovation, and standardisation. The portal allows to interact with people and organisations involved in standardisation and to learn about the standardisation activities performed in European research projects from different domains, including access to trainings and coaching programmes. The project identified a set of bottlenecks in the standardisation process and has formulated different recommendations to address these bottlenecks. The recommendations targeted at different groups can be accessed through the portal: Bottlenecks and Recommendations.
Join the STAND4EU community and have your say
Register as an individual or organisation through this link and showcase your work and projects. We need your feedback on the bottlenecks and recommendations. Please share your views directly through the STAND4EU Portal. You can follow this guidance video: How to Provide Feedback on Recommendations. | | | |
Join us for STAND4EU final event in Brussels
On October 24th, from 9:00 to 14:00(CET), we are organising a face-to-face event to discuss how standardisation can boost research and innovation results in Europe. This event will take place on TownHall Europe in Brussels, and we invite you to join us in person to learn more about the European standardisation strategy and how it can boost R&I. Register at this link.
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Demystifying Standards - A Series of free Webinars to Master Standardisation
SBS & SMEunited are pleased to announce a collaborative effort offering 4 free webinars designed to empower SME associations and their members with the knowledge of standardisation.
Join us over the next four months (at 14:00 CEST) for a series of short, engaging webinars covering various aspects of standardisation. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions and gain practical advice to benefit your association and its members.
Register by sending an email to Doris Rabetge at d.rabetge@smeunited.eu.
🔹 1. Why Standards Matter: key concepts explained 26 September 2024 | 14 - 14.45 CEST
🔹 2. Standards and Regulations: Navigating the Compliance maze 23 October 2024 | 14 - 14.45 CEST
🔹 3. Creating standards: Understanding the process 27 November 2024 | 14 - 14.45 CEST
🔹 4. Get involved: Shaping standards to the benefit of SMEs 18 December 2024 | 14 - 14.45 CEST | | | |
MSP Task Force on Research and Innovation
Kick-Off Meeting of the European Multi-Stakeholder Platform Task Force on ICT Standardisation Research & Innovation.
The TF R&I is composed of members of the MSP or their designates and will provide advice to the MSP on how DG CONNECT, along with relevant partner DGs and agencies, can significantly improve the mobilisation, training, and support of more European R&I experts. Ultimately, the TF aims to effectively engage in ICT standardisation activities that support key EU digital policy priorities, with a focus on SMEs, start-ups, academic researchers, R&I centres, and large corporations.
The main goal is to achieve a more systematic and effective integration of standardisation within and across various R&I funding programmes. The TF is also tasked with advising and supporting the training of researchers involved in Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) to help them engage with other non-academic sectors, advising on how to motivate more SMEs and start-ups to participate in standardisation, and regularly reporting to the MSP and DG CONNECT on the status of its work. | | | |
European DIGITAL SME Alliance Launches Essay Competition on ICT Standardisation for Students and Graduates
SBS member European DIGITAL SME Alliance has launched an essay competition aimed at promoting critical thinking and exploration of various ICT-related topics among students and recent graduates.
The competition will be organized in calls and the chosen theme for the inaugural call is “ICT Standardization” (deadline for submissions: 15 October 2024). Find more at www.digitalsme.eu/essay-competition. By submitting essays on relevant ICT topics, participants contribute to the collective knowledge and discourse in the field. Their insights and perspectives can inform future research, policymaking, and technological innovations. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals, experts, and professionals in the ICT community. The winner will be awarded with a 6-month remunerated traineeship linked to the essay topic. The award ceremony will take place during the annual DIGITAL SME Summit which will be held on 10 December 2024 at the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels. | | | |
SBS - EFESME - FEPYMA organise a national seminar for lifts SMEs
On 11 September SBS, EFESME and FEPYMA (the Spanish association of lifts SMEs) co-organised a national seminar for SMEs in the lifts sector in Bilbao. The SBS seminar was organised as part of one the FEPYMA information days to inform sectoral SMEs of current and future changes in Spanish national legislation on lifts.
The seminar took place over two sessions, tackling different aspects of the involvement and benefits of lifts SMEs in standardisation. | | The first session was opened by Ana Belen Piazuelo, owner of a lifts SME and long-term participant in the UNE national committee CTN321 on lifts, who discussed how to practically engage with the standardisation process at national level and importance for SMEs of directly contributing to shaping the standards in the sector. Following this intervention, Luca Incoronato of ANACAM (Italian association of lifts SMEs) described the European legislative framework on lifts, including references to the new Machinery Regulation approved in 2023, and the interplay between international and European standards in the sector. The first session was closed by Ivan Ferrarini, SBS expert in CEN/TC 10, offered a mapping of the standards currently under development or revision both at CEN and ISO level. | | | |
The second session of the seminar was opened by Andrea Raffaelli, SBS Standardisation policy officer, who outlined the role and goals of SBS in support of SMEs at all level of standardisation, highlighting the work of the SBS technical expert and the impact of SBS’s action both on the technical and the political side, referencing in particular the ongoing work in the High-Level Forum on European standardisation and how standards can help SMEs take advantage of the opportunities created by the twin transition. The second session continued with interventions from Ana Belen Piazuelo and from Lorenzo Beltran, also an owner of an SME operating in the lifts sector, who highlighted the practical benefits of direct involvement in standardisation to the work and growth of their companies, offering tangible examples of how standards can help SMEs scale up and prosper.
The well-attended event was an excellent opportunity for SBS its partners to highlight the concrete benefits of standards to SMEs and help them engage directly with the standardisation process and drive their growth. | | | |
SBS national training in Bulgaria
The second SBS national training on standardisation in the lift sector will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 28th November. The event will be the proper occasion to meet Bulgarian lift SMEs, and to train and inform them about the possibilities to participate with their experts in standardisation processes at national and European level, to work towards the writing and publication of SME-friendly standards.
The event will also deal with topics such as how EU standardisation processes work and how the standardisation in the lift sector is developed, with the intention of continuing to promote and carry out activities to bring European SMEs closer to standardisation and gradually close the gap sometimes perceived by small and medium-sized companies between their daily work and the reality of standards development at national, European and even international level. | | | | | | EUROPEAN STANDARDS
A European standard is a document developed and adopted by the European Standards Organisations: the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and/or the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Once a European standard is adopted at the European level, it must be implemented identically by the National Standards Bodies across Europe. This means each NSB is required to publish the European standard as their national standard, and any conflicting national standard must be withdrawn.
European standards are generally voluntary. However, they may become obligatory if regulators make them legally binding or if they are incorporated into a contract.
European standards references always start with the initials "EN", or in the case of ETSI developed standards with "ETSI EN". If the concerned standard is common with an international standard, this indication will be completed with the initials of the concerned international standards organisation(s), i.e. ‘EN ISO’, ‘EN IEC’ or ‘EN ISO/IEC’.
When a European or international standard is published at the national level, its reference includes the NSE prefix. For example, the reference of a European standard published by AFNOR (The French NSB) will start with ‘NF EN’. If it is a common European international standard developed by IEC and published in France, it will start with ‘NF EN ISO’. | | | | | |
🔹ISO holds its Annual Meeting in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia)
From 9 to 13 September, ISO held its 2024 Annual Meeting in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia). Under the title “Breaking Boundaries”, the four-day event organised sessions on a number of crucial topics, including sustainable and inclusive growth, AI and the future of human capital. SBS Secretary General, Maitane Olabarria, spoke at the session entitled “leveraging AI for small business growth”. She emphasised the need to focus on real-world challenges, to scale AI adoption gradually and the need for accessible, affordable and easily implementable standards for SMEs. The full recordings of many of the panels and sessions are available on the ISO website.
🔹Proposal for new ISO Technical Committee on Creative digital design
In August, the Chinese National Standardisation Body (SAC) proposed a new ISO Technical Committee on creative digital design. Standardisation of protocols, including requirements and guidance, for processes, organisation, operations and capacity building activities, related to human-based creative design of digital elements to be used, in the field of e-games, digital art, digital fashion design, cinema effects. By being technology-neutral, this doesn’t include specifications related to IT-technology aspects. The deadline to provide feedback via your NSB, on the creation of this new TC is 1 October.
🔹Proposal for new ISO Technical Committee on Digital Marketing
In August, the Chinese National Standardisation Body (SAC) proposed a new ISO Technical Committee on digital marketing. If created the TC would work on standardisation in terminology, requirements, recommendations, practices, tools and methods for organisations and professionals leading digital marketing, except digital marketing activities that will result in e-commerce transactions and related work within the scope of a number of existing ISO technical committees, including ISO/IEC JTC 1 (Information technology). The deadline to provide feedback via your NSB, on the creation of this new TC is 8 October. 🔹CEN-CENELEC new guide on “Gender responsiveness in standardisation”
On 16 September, CEN and CENELEC published a new guide on “Gender responsiveness in standardisation”. The guide includes information on what gender-responsive standards are and why they are important, as well as providing practical tips for action on how to be more inclusive and shares a list of useful resources on the topic. The guide is freely available for full download on the CEN-CENELEC website.
🔹CEN-CENELEC webinar on “Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change in Standards”
On 7 October, CEN and CENELEC will organise a webinar, aimed at training standardisation experts and officials of technical bodies to include measures adaptation to climate change in standards. This training will equip TCs and their Working Groups (WGs) on how to use the “Tailored Guidance for Standardisation Technical Committees” to identify climate issues in their standards and to address these in line with the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. Please note that registration to this webinar is mandatory. | | | | | |
🔹Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2024/2387 of 9 September 2024 on the harmonised standards for EU fertilising products drafted in support of Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 of the European Parliament and the Council.
The latest list of harmonised standards referenced in the Official Journal, including the consolidated list of references, can be viewed on the European Commission website. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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