Position Paper CEN-CENELEC Response to COM (2010) 546 on the Innovation Union Introduction CEN and CENELEC very much welcome the overall theme of the Communication, which is very much in line with our philosophy as European Standardization Organizations (ESOs). We see the Communication as improving the coherence of EU research programmes, and as paving the way for a climate in which businesses are better able to benefit from the fruits of innovation. We therefore appreciate the positive reference to the importance of standardization in connection with innovation pointing out that in the past standardisation has already contributed in several essential ways to promote new technologies and foster innovation. As an open and transparent system bringing together a wide spectrum of stakeholders standardisation is the tool-of-choice to pave the way for new technologies. Especially in those areas where technology acceptance in the market is heavily linked to consumer confidence in respect of safe, compatible and reliable products and services, standardisation plays an important and inherent role in significantly reducing reduce time-to-market. As a matter of course we should not forget that such a complex, open and transparent system such as European standardization, going through a permanent process of evolution in the last half-decade, always leaves room for continuous improvement.. The Communication cites many areas in which standardization can play a part, and we are ready and willing to work with the Commission to bring this about wherever possible.
Better integrating standardization, innovation and research CEN and CENELEC have been working for some time on the need to improve links between standards and research. As a tangible example, we established in 2009 the CEN-CENELEC STAIR Working Group, which has prepared a blueprint entitled the Integrated Approach between Standardization, Innovation and Research 1 : The COPRAS project in FP6 researched the synergies between ICT research projects and standardization, and found that most projects with a need to make this link did not consider the requirements until too late, and often had no idea how to go about it; The integrated approach will ensure that the standardization aspects are considered right from the start, to facilitate the transfer of innovative outcomes to the market and will provide a basis for further innovations; One reason for the GSM s success was a very close relationship between the standardization process and research and development, through the dedicated RACE and ACTS projects. These close links have been lost. We are currently working to provide a more user-friendly framework to enable projects to implement this integrated approach. But we already use (or apply) fast processes for consensus on innovative subjects one third of CEN Workshops currently link directly to research projects. One of the reasons we do not get the full benefit of this tool is that the concept is still insufficiently known in the research community. We believe that a strong co-operation between the Commission and the ESOs is vital to ensure the integrated approach becomes systematic in FP8, including the provision of the necessary (but modest) funding required for the standards work. Speed of standardization 2 For European Standards (ENs), the average development time is now around 2 ½ years, start to finish. This period has been halved since 2005. Further time saving can only be achieved at the expense of quality, given the need to ensure full national consultation in the process, which enables participation of societal stakeholders and SMEs; 1 ftp://ftp.cen.eu/pub/stair.pdf 2 ftp://ftp.cencenelec.eu/pub/statisticalpacks/2010_q3.pdf; see figure 1 on the following page CEN-CENELEC Position Paper February 2011 Page 2 of 7
For CEN (and CENELEC) Workshop Agreements (CWAs), average development time is around 18 months. This makes CWAs ideal as experimental first consensus to support innovative subjects and to link with research projects. There are many examples, such as current work on GNSS applications for dangerous goods transport and container tracking, consensus on technical requirements for a pan-european health insurance card, or innovative techniques for treating municipal wastewater 3 ; Of all CEN and CENELEC documents published in 2010 up to the end of Q3, 18% had been published in less than one year, 35% between one and two years, 29% between two and three years, and only 18% had taken over three years. Figure 1: CEN-CENELEC -Breakdown of Development Time - documents published in 2010 We venture to say that this speed, even for the formal European Standards, is at least as good if not better - than that of industry standards consortia. International and national links We need to note the fact that the national standards bodies participating in CEN and CENELEC are major contributors to formal international standards, which in the case of CEN/ISO, or CENELEC/IEC, can and do become in parallel European Standards through the Vienna and Dresden Agreement processes (and the other way around). We accept that many consortia have a global reach. CEN and CENELEC are currently working to improve our ability to welcome relevant consortia (and industry association) 3 Further information is available on our website, see especially the brochure at ftp://ftp.cen.eu/pub/innovationandgrowth.pdf CEN-CENELEC Position Paper February 2011 Page 3 of 7
specifications as draft European Standards. Such a process also requires the willingness of these consortia for offering their specifications as the basis for a European Standard a willingness that is not necessarily present. This is quite a natural reaction since the European standardization process requires the involvement of all interested parties, so there is a need to be more inclusive and this public and general interest objective contrasts with the commercial drivers behind consortia standardization. These principles are followed and applied by most industry sectors, such as construction, chemical, electro-technical, mechanical, textiles or toys to mention only a few. These industries are pillars of the European economy, and use these principles to ensure a coherent and competitive European economy, which indeed implies a higher investment in the process but that ensure an optimal application of the private-public partnership. It is also the case that the consortia are highly fragmented 4. The real added-value of European Standards is that they are adopted as identical national standards in all the 31 member countries of CEN and CENELEC (EU, EFTA and Croatia), with any conflicting national standards being withdrawn. They contribute to a Europe-wide harmonization of safety, performance, interoperability or any other criteria for innovative products and services. European standardization provides a platform for all stakeholders accessible and useable by all, including societal stakeholders and SMEs. The national delegation principle ensures that all interests are represented in the standardization work, and facilitates integration through dedicated actions for specific categories of stakeholders and through the removal of language barriers. They therefore can also fight the fragmentation of public procurement markets and assist in using public procurement for "pulling" EU innovation and creating the single innovation market that the Communication advocates. Consortia cannot match this. Technology convergence and the ESOs CEN and CENELEC combining back offices in 2010 already improved collaboration on innovative subjects. For example, we have adopted fast and combined approaches to 4 CEN-CENELEC provide a list of nearly 250 open industry consortia in the ICT field, see http://www.cen.eu/cen/sectors/sectors/isss/consortia/pages/default.aspx CEN-CENELEC Position Paper February 2011 Page 4 of 7
new topics such as electric vehicles, nuclear energy and smart grids (the lastmentioned also in collaboration with ETSI); Convergence issues mostly concern ICT. The three ESOs have had a long tradition to collaborate between them on ICT topics, recognising the difference in their activities ETSI is dealing with the communications infrastructure, CENELEC with electronic components, and CEN with applications such as ebusiness, ehealth, elearning etc.; Currently the ESOs are collaborating on standards programmes for eaccessibility, ehealth, Intelligent Transport, RFID, Smart Meters, to name only a few. It is a myth that Europe has a lot of technology waiting to be standardized globally in ICT. We lack the European-owned companies to participate in the technology consortia, which generally are US-driven. It is different for applications, where we need end-user views and to produce consensus for the single market. The consortia cannot provide these (and cannot guarantee national implementation as we can for European Standards). On the other hand, we are perfectly willing to work with consortia, but of the several hundred listed on our website, very few indeed have any interest in European application issues. We search for continuous improvement In summary, CEN and CENELEC recognise that the world evolves and brings new challenges that the European standardization community should address. These challenges have been identified and actions have been taken accordingly. In this context, innovation-related issues figure prominently. Standardization s contribution is often critical to the market introduction of new technologies. We work on many of these (RFID, nanotechnologies, all the e applications) and also in new domains that previously were not standardized (services, healthcare, social services). We have also started working on several high strategic projects such as electric vehicles, smart meters and smart grids, and are committed to delivering on time a set of standards that will enhance the roll out of these sectors. CEN and CENELEC are addressing the link with R&D in order to reinforce the role of standards as a tool for market penetration of R&D results through the development of an integrated strategy, better promotion of the benefits of standardization to relevant R&D partners, and active involvement in FP projects. We are also seeking to integrate standardization as a discipline in education programmes at every level of the curriculum. CEN-CENELEC Position Paper February 2011 Page 5 of 7
We are also making significant efforts to link with relevant standards fora and consortia. We have fast-track procedures to take up their specifications as draft European Standards, and are looking to improve them. CEN and CENELEC are thus fully committed to support the Innovation Union. We are seeking considerable improvements in the links between standardization, innovation and research, and are fully ready to collaborate with the European Commission to provide a long-term framework to link appropriate research results with standardization. ABOUT CEN The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) is a business catalyst in Europe, removing trade barriers for European stakeholders such as industry, public administration, service providers, consumers and other stakeholders. Its mission is to foster the European economy in global trading, the welfare of European citizens, and the environment. Through its services, CEN provides a platform for the development of European Standards and other specifications. CEN s 31 National Members work together to develop voluntary European Standards (ENs) in various sectors to build a European Internal Market for goods and services and to position Europe in the global economy. By supporting research, and helping disseminate innovation, standards are a powerful tool for economic growth. More than 60.000 technical experts as well as business federations, consumer and other societal interest organizations are involved in the CEN network that reaches over 480 million people. For further information, please visit: www.cen.eu ABOUT CENELEC The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization is officially responsible for standardization in the electrotechnical field. In an ever more global economy, CENELEC fosters innovation and competitiveness, making technology available not only to major businesses but also to SMEs through the production of voluntary standards. CENELEC creates market access at the European level but also at the international level through its cooperation agreement with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Through the work of its 31 Members together with its experts, the industry federations and consumers, Electrotechnical European Standards are created in order to help shape the European Internal Market, to encourage technological development, to ensure interoperability and to guarantee the safety and health of consumers and provide environmental protection. Detailed information available at www.cenelec.eu CEN-CENELEC Position Paper February 2011 Page 6 of 7
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