The event, organised in association with European standardisation organisations CEN and CENELEC, was hosted by chair of the European parliament's internal market and consumer protection (IMCO) committee Vicky Ford.
Ford opened the discussion by citing the "huge amount of concern from the people we represent because of the debate that has been going on around the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) and issues around standards". This situation, said Ford, made it highly important for the message on why standards are necessary to be conveyed to citizens.
"We must share how standards help to make our industries and businesses more competitive and reduce costs and uncertainty for consumers so they know what they are getting. It is so important that we understand who sets the standards," she added.
"Having different standards doesn't mean that they're not acceptable standards, just that they're different, but that then produces a challenge" – Vicky Ford
Pointing to the concerns over TTIP, the UK committee chair, said that, "understanding those differences between US and EU standards procedures helps to understand differences in standards on different sides of the Atlantic and in different parts of the world".
"Having different standards," she adds, however, "doesn't mean that they're not acceptable standards, just that they're different, but that then produces a challenge". Ford said the IMCO committee has to meet this challenge within the EU by deciding "when we say we want this to be the same and when we say that it's perfectly ok to be different because we are different".
"The best example of this is on furniture and fabric retardants. In the UK if you didn’t have fire retardant chemicals in your furniture people would think that was deeply dangerous. I've grown up my whole life with warnings from firefighters who have warned of the dangers of not having these chemicals, but in other parts of Europe people are deeply sceptical about those chemicals and believe that if you have them you are at risk of cancer. Both are perfectly acceptable historic positions and they're why we don't have the same standards on furniture."
The ECR MEP said there was a responsibility for policymakers to help "deliver a better EU that consumers believe in", adding, "consumers are happy when we leave things alone – they don't like it when their favourite products are taken off the market". She pointed to the EU requirements recently brought in governing the power output of vacuum cleaners, which had caused consumer frustration and confusion. This frustration was because "we didn’t bring consumers with us", said Ford, adding that, "within the European parliament and commission there is a desire to look at how we are consulting on these issues". "We must improve our standard setting," she stressed.
Standards in the spotlight
Director of industrial property, innovation and standards at the European commission Kerstin Jorna echoed Ford's comments by underlining the importance of standard setting. "Standards matter," she said. "They matter when EU industry wants to expand outside the EU. Standards are fundamental for getting onto new markets. When we discuss the potential for innovation, standards are the tools to bring new ideas and prototypes onto the market and to new consumers. When SMEs want to expand their business in the EU or outside, standards are crucial and with negotiations with the US on a new trade agreement, standards are in the spotlight."
"When we discuss the potential for innovation, standards are the tools to bring new ideas and prototypes onto the market and to new consumers" – Kerstin Jorna
Jorna welcomed the "continued and strong support" for European standardisation from MEPs, underlining the role of parliament's 2010 resolution in "kicking off the big review of standardisation policy in Europe". Jorna also stressed the importance of the 14,000 harmonised European standards, which are the same across all EU member states. "This is a very important feature if you look at it from the point of view of the company as it means that they can rely on these standards and if they respect them they are in conformity with the legislation." For her, the EU should have great pride in this "unique" system, which she said "many other countries, including the neighbourhood counties and from the east Asian region to Latin America, are inspired by or would even like to copy".
Jorna highlighted the "clear distinction between legislation and standards themselves" as a key element of the EU's system. Legislation is "mandatory, stable and democratically supported", while standards are "voluntary, consensus-based, constantly updated to reflect the state of the art and contribute to the high level of protection", said the commission official. "The beauty of the system is that it is companies that are the main partners in the system. So it is companies developing standards for companies – by industry for industry."
However, despite the efficacy of Europe's system Jorna warned against complacency, saying, "The EU is ageing – our industrial equipment is depreciating much quicker than we are investing in it. There is a €30bn investment gap and we need to renew."
She also underlined the challenges presented by changing business models. "The wealth of our companies is increasingly intangible – in Europe, 39 per cent of GDP comes from intellectual property (IP) intensive industries that use IP rights as the main element in their business model. Our challenge for the coming years is how standardisation in Europe can help companies adopt the new future and modernise European industry. We must look at where companies and citizens want standards in the future," she concluded.
"Standards bring greater reliability, higher quality and performance compatibility and connectivity as well as benefits in terms of more efficiency, lower costs and less waste" – Tore Trondvold
President of the European committee for electrotechnical standardisation (CENELEC) Tore Trondvold also stressed the crucial nature of European standards, calling them "essential for the single market, as well as having to protect consumers". "Standards are involved in almost everything in our daily life," he said, adding that standards organisations are focusing on the benefits for businesses and industry.
"Standards bring benefits in terms of reinforcing the European single market and opening up international trade. They benefit in terms of enhancing health and safety, consumer confidence and protecting the environment. Standards bring greater reliability, higher quality and performance compatibility and connectivity as well as benefits in terms of more efficiency, lower costs and less waste."
For Trondvold the benefits of standardisation are clear. "My motivation for joining standardisation work was access to a bigger market. Getting rid of technical barriers to trade is one of the most important tasks that we have. From a business perspective standards are useful and valuable tools. Knowing which standard to use and how to apply them in the correct way is vital for the success and competitiveness of our businesses."
The business perspective
Christian Wetterberg, director for external relations in Lego's corporate affairs department, began by outlining the unique position of his company, saying, "toys – along with pharmaceuticals – are among the most heavily regulated products in the world".
"In the EU," he said, "we produce standards that are then presented to the commission for referencing in the official journal and if they are referenced then they give us presumption of conformity. It's a bit special with toys as we do not supply those standards or if there is a hazard that is not covered we are obliged to go to a third party – a notified body – to have those products approved. This is a costly and more onerous process, administratively speaking, so we really want these standards to cover any hazard and to be continuously updated."
"Standards do not prevent innovation –60 per cent of Lego's growth is from new products" – Christian Wetterberg
"We also produce many amendments to our many standards," said Wetterberg. "So you could say there is an authority in the European commission that decides if those standards are good enough. Sometimes there is criticism for industry driving standardisation. We are told it is a positive thing, but for some it is a negative thing and there is too little involvement from consumer organisations and authorities. We want everybody round the table because once the standards are produced we want the presumption of conformity."
Lego's international presence – they sell to 140 countries worldwide – brings complications of its own and Wetterberg is keen to see a global alignment of safety requirements and standards. As he underlines, "There is no overarching authority to scrutinise or approve our standards globally, it is up to each individual country to say you must meet these standards to sell toys in our country.
"Lego sells the same product across the world – we don’t sell different bricks for different requirements. So we simply pick the strictest requirements across the world and we manufacture our products according to those. However, when it comes to packaging we need different versions as there are different requirements for labelling, for warnings, there are language requirements."
From Lego, said Wetterberg, there is a desire to "reduce the time spent monitoring local requirements" and have "simplicity in warnings and labels".
"Standardisation allows SMEs to share the latest technical knowledge, allowing them to match larger companies" – Barbara Sorgato
Despite the reams of requirements that must be met, he still underlined the need to "build consumer trust", adding that Lego does not see the need for standardisation as restricting. "Standards do not prevent innovation –60 per cent of Lego's growth is from new products," he stressed.
Also providing the industry perspective and SMEs in particular, was Barbara Sorgato, the secretary general of the European consortium of anchors producers (ECAP). "Standardisation allows SMEs to share the latest technical knowledge, allowing them to match larger companies," she said.
However, she urged a simplification of the standardisation process to assist SMEs in applying and understanding European standardisation. "Standards need to be as short as feasible," she added.
The final speaker was director general of the European committee of domestic equipment manufacturers Paolo Falcioni, who stressed that, "In a changing market context it is necessary to stress the importance of standards and why they are vital for the competitiveness of our businesses."
"Can you quantify the value of standards for industry?," asked Falcioni, who highlighted European parliament findings that estimated the value of the energy union at €252bn and the value of the digital single market at €418bn. However, for Falcioni, these projects were unachievable without the support of standardisation.
"Safety standards allow us to safely use our household appliances so there is a huge societal value" – Paolo Falcioni
"Interoperability is crucial to the energy union," he added, "and standards are the enablers that can unlock these numbers." Speaking from the perspective of an industry that has over 14 billion appliances installed in EU homes, he said, "Safety standards allow us to safely use our household appliances so there is a huge societal value." With this in mind, Falcioni also underlined the importance of standards to the "discussion on the efficiency of resources".
"Applying standards allows us to make the best use of limited resources," he said, but added that it was also vital to "strike the right balance in making sure we have the right legislative framework supported by standards to foster jobs and growth". "This is at the heart of why we want a better Europe."
Vicky Ford also highlighted the importance of standards to ongoing European policy discussion. "Smart, interoperable, interconnected and the digital single market are words being used again and again under the new parliament," she said. "The reason we are doing this is because we want to boost competitiveness and standards have a role to play in this."