PURPOSE: to amend the EU Regulation as regards the decisions of European standardisation organisations concerning European standards and European standardisation deliverables.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishes rules with regard to the establishment of European standards and European standardisation deliverables for products and for services in support of Union legislation and policies. In accordance with Article 10 of the Regulation, the Commission may request one or several European standardisation organisations to draft a European standard or European standardisation deliverable.

The European standardisation organisations are defined in the Standardisation Regulation. There are three European standardisation organisations: the European Committee for standardisation (CEN); the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). They have an exclusive role to carry out standardisation work requested by the Commission in support of EU legislation and policies.

While the system was originally mainly focused on EU stakeholders, the practices of the ESOs with regard to their internal governance and decision-making procedures have changed in recent years. The ESOs now cooperate with a wide range of stakeholders, including from third countries, and allow them to participate not only in the technical work, but also in their internal policy and decision-making processes.

When European standardisation organisations execute standardisation requests to support Union legislation and policies, unrestricted participation of any stakeholder in their internal decision-making may lead to decisions that do not entirely take account of the Union’s interests, policy objectives and values or the public interests in general.

National standardisation bodies play an essential role in the standardisation system, both, at the Union level and at the level of Member States. They are therefore best placed to make sure that the interests, policy objectives and values of the Union as well as public interests in general are duly taken into account in European standardisation organisations. The Commission considers it necessary to strengthen their role in decision-making bodies of the European standardisation organisations when those bodies take decisions concerning European standards and European standardisation deliverables requested by the Commission under Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012.

CONTENT: the proposed amendment to Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 aims to ensure that the whole internal decision-making process in issuing standards and standardisation deliverables, requested by the Commission on the basis of Article 10(1) of the Standardisation Regulation, is in line with what the EU institutions expect from a standards-developing body officially recognised as a European standards organisation.

The proposal thus provides that decisions in the decision-making bodies of the European standardisation organisations concerning European standards and European standardisation publications requested by the Commission will be taken exclusively by the representatives of the national standardisation organisations . The Commission may only make such requests to a European standardisation organisation that complies with that requirement.

In order to allow the European standardisation organisations to adapt, where necessary, their internal rules of procedure, the amendment provides for a transitional period of six months before entering into force.

The Commission will assist the European standardisation organisations to help them amend their internal rules for decision making regarding standards and standardisation deliverables requested by the Commission under Article 10(1) of the Standardisation Regulation.