EU Annual Work Programme for Standardisation calls for more support for environmental NGOs

ECOS welcomes the publication of the Annual Union Work Programme for European standardisation for 2018 (AUWP) which acknowledges that “many challenges remain” concerning participation of societal stakeholders such as ECOS. The AUWP rightly points out that efforts should be maintained to address these challenges with a particular focus at international level with ISO and the IEC.

ECOS will continue to work with the European Commission to improve the inclusiveness of the standardisation system. We also look forward to seeing Commission initiatives to improve our ability to work at the international level with the IEC and ISO.

In our comments on the preliminary draft by the European Commission, we supported the proposed activities in key environmental areas, namely the circular economy, climate change & energy, energy efficiency, and environmental health. However, we regretted the lack of transparency of the consultation document, with the preliminary draft providing no strategic outlook, no structure, no context, and no explanation of reasoning for proposals put forward.

Furthermore, and importantly for the engagement of environmental NGOs in standardisation we called for the AUWP to include actions to help achieve the objectives of Regulation (EU) 1025/2012 on European standardisation, especially regarding effective participation of under-represented stakeholders such as environmental NGOs.