21.03.2025
Standardization in the “Brussels bubble”
Lue lisää
09.05.2025
Single Market and New Legislative Framework
Hulda Niinistö, EU Policy Project Manager at CEN and CENELEC. Part 2 of 3.
Standards also have an increasing importance for the current priorities of the European Commission, such as increasing competitiveness and strengthening the Single Market. As Enrico Letta said in Much More Than A Market (2024) “It is essential to continue investing in the enhancement and promotion of European standards, reinforcing the Single Market’s role as a robust platform that supports innovation, safeguards consumer interests, and promotes sustainable development”.
This belief in the strength of standards is based on a long tradition of cooperation and successes: European standards are the invisible infrastructure that hold the Single Market together. Standards ensure the flow of goods and services across the internal market, create security, enable innovation and facilitate the competitiveness of European industry.
At the heart of CEN and CENELEC is the National Delegation Principle, based on National Standardization Bodies and National Committees in 34 countries across Europe working together to create one single European standard. Once a European standard is approved, it is identically implemented at the national level by all CEN and CENELEC Members, while conflicting national standards are withdrawn. This ensures that one European standard is identical across 34 countries, truly harmonizing the Single Market.
The New Legislative Framework (NLF) adopted in 2008 has enabled standards to support legislation in a variety of policy areas, making standardization critical in building the Single Market we know today. At the NLF’s core is ‘presumption of conformity’, meaning that by using a harmonized European Standard listed in the Official Journal of the European Union, a manufacturer is deemed to comply with the regulation. This reduces administrative burden, and the related cost associated with third-party testing and certification. The NLF and presumption of conformity are key enablers for simplification, another overarching goal of the current European Commission, ensuring that unnecessary resources do not have to be spent on documentation and conformity assessments. CEN and CENELEC have the most standards cited by Regulations and Directives in the field of machinery, construction products and pressure equipment.
The use of the NLF also allows for greater flexibility that can respond to state-of-the-art advances and innovation. When there are technical advances, the content of harmonized standards can be revised without having to adapt the legal text. This approach provides a flexible, innovation friendly regulatory framework that supports competitiveness. This has also led to the increased use and adoption of European Standards by other regions of the world, bringing significant advantage to European businesses as it reduces market access barriers to third countries.
