[A2k] EU:standards to boost innovation and competitiveness

[Michelle Childs]

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standards to boost innovation and competitiveness

Reference:  IP/08/422    Date:  11/03/2008


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IP/08/422

Brussels, 11th March 2007
Standards to boost innovation and competitiveness
Standardisation can make an important contribution to the development
of sustainable industrial policy, unlock the potential of innovative
markets and strengthen the position of European economy through more
efficient capitalising of its knowledge basis. These are the main
conclusions of a European Commission communication =93Towards an
increased contribution from standardisation to innovation in Europe=94
published today. It identifies the most important challenges faced,
presents concrete objectives for standardisation and the use of
standards, and consolidates on-going efforts and proposed measures to
be launched both by relevant stakeholders and by the Commission. The
communication identifies key elements for focusing EU standardisation
policy on innovation such as commitment to market-led standardisation
and to the voluntary use of standards, inclusion of new knowledge in
standards or access to standardisation of all interested stakeholders,
in particular small and medium enterprises, but also consumers and
researchers.

Commission Vice-President G=FCnter Verheugen, responsible for enterprise
and industry policy said: =93The success of the European standardisation
system in removing technical barriers to trade has played a vital role
in ensuring the free movement of goods between Member States. A strong
role for Europe in international standardisation means European
leadership in new markets and gaining first-mover advantages in global
markets ".

Standardisation must adapt to growing international competition in
standards-setting from emerging powers, who consider standardisation
an important strategic asset. Faced with this background, the
Commission proposes to Member States, industry, users, standards
bodies and other stakeholders key elements for focusing EU
standardisation policy in support of innovation and competitiveness.
The intention is increase the impact of Europe in global
standardisation, to facilitate the inclusion of new knowledge in
standards, to make effective the access to standardisation to all
stakeholders, in particular to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
(SMEs), to accelerate the uptake of standards by users, and to reform
the infrastructure and procedures of European standardisation in order
to render it more supportive to innovation.

As a result, the EU expects standardisation to make an important
contribution to the following priority actions for innovation and
competitiveness:

   * Sustainable industrial policy: this aims at improving the energy
and resource efficiency of products, processes and services and the
competitiveness of European industry. Standardisation is important in
enabling the uptake of eco-innovation and environmental technologies.
   * Lead markets: Standardisation is one of the key elements for the
success of the lead market initiative which aims to accelerate the
emergence of innovative market areas such as eHealth, sustainable
construction, recycling and renewable energy. A European lead in
developing globally accepted standards would facilitate the growth of
these markets both in Europe and abroad (see IP/08/12).
   * Public procurement: the appropriate use of standards in public
procurement may foster innovation, while providing administrations
with the tools needed to fulfil their tasks.
   * The integration of ICT in industry and administrations: the
potential to improve the competitive position of the European economy
through a more efficient and effective use of ICT tools is important,
and standards are essential to realise this potential.

Background

Standardisation is a voluntary cooperation among industry, consumers
and public authorities for the development of technical specifications
based on consensus. In the EU standards are developed by the European
Standards Organisations CEN, CENELEC and ETSI contributing to the EU=92s
Better Regulation policy as a key element in keeping EU legislation
simple and limiting it to the essential elements for the protection of
public interests such as health and safety of citizens.
More information
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/standards_policy/index_en.htm

---------
Michelle Childs
Head of European Affairs
Knowledge Ecology International
michelle.childs@keionline.org

"The world we have made, as a result of the level of thinking we have
done thus far, creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of
thinking at which we created them=94  Albert Einstein