Europaudvalget 2021-22
EUU Alm.del Bilag 23
Offentligt
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The Danish Government’s response to the public consultation on a
roadmap for the upcoming standardisation strategy
The Danish Government welcomes the Commission’s initiative to
launch a horizontal standardisation strategy, that spans from a large-
scale strategic approach to global standard-setting to the technical de-
tails of working methods and processes within the European Standardi-
sation System (ESS).
The Danish Government agrees with the Commission that the ESS is a
cornerstone in the single market and that it must be agile, robust and
efficient to support the competitiveness of European businesses as well
as advance political priorities such as the green and digital transitions.
In this context, we strongly support the Standardisation Regulation, the
core principles of the New Legislative Framework and the public-pri-
vate partnership between legislators and industry that constitutes the
ESS. The Standardisation Regulation ensures that European standards
are built on European values of transparency, inclusiveness and consen-
sus-building.
The Danish Government appreciates that the Commission has taken note
of the concerns expressed by member states, including Denmark, and
other stakeholders regarding the current challenges facing the system of
harmonised standards.
In the following, we will address the 3 questions on which the Commis-
sion has requested feedback.
1. Is the current European standardisation system fit for purpose to
support European strategic interests?
The Danish Government believes that the problems identified in the
roadmap can be addressed without introducing fundamental changes to
the system, since the ESS and the Standardisation Regulation are essen-
tially fit for purpose. We believe the NLF is the best instrument to sup-
port European strategic interests through standardisation.
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This is not to say that the ESS is without flaws. Indeed, the system can
be improved, and with regards to harmonised standards there is an ur-
gent need to put the ESS back on track. While we believe that the pro-
posals in the roadmap’s section B (1) constitute a good starting point,
please refer to question 3 for our comments on governance and working
methods of the ESS.
As for services standardisation, the Danish Government looks forward
to the Commission’s analysis of the potential for standardisation for a
number of services, as outlined in the updated industrial strategy.
2. How can EU leverage and promote global leadership in stand-
ards-setting?
The Danish Government agrees with the Commission’s problem analy-
sis with regards to the protection and promotion of European values and
freedoms in global standard-setting on artificial intelligence and other
new digital/online technologies. Other actors on the global scene have
already mobilized in this area, and the Danish Government welcomes
the Commission’s initiative to launch a strategic and coordinated effort
to ensure the EU’s role as a standard-setter
rather than a standard-taker.
In addition to a focus on areas of strategic importance to the EU, a co-
ordinated approach can promote the “European signature” on interna-
tional standardisation, i.e. values such as inclusion, transparency safety,
environmental protection etc.
Of course, the EU will be better equipped to influence standardization
on the global level, if the ESS is well-functioning, robust and agile.
Therefore, it is important that these different dimensions of European
standardisation are addressed jointly in this strategy.
3. Are changes in governance and working methods required to im-
prove the performance of the European standardisation system?
The Danish Government believes that the performance of the ESS can
be improved through changes in the working methods of the system,
particularly in the processes within the Commission services and the re-
lations between the Commission and other parties and stakeholders in-
volved in standardisation activities. We believe that the current prob-
lems in the system of harmonised standards can be solved with adjust-
ments at the working level through a truly collaborative effort without
any fundamental amendments to the legal framework for European
standardisation.
The problems regarding harmonised standards are of particular concern
to the Danish government. The current challenges are rooted in a Com-
mission decision to regard all harmonised standards as European law,
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based on an ECJ ruling on construction products, which is not men-
tioned in the roadmap. Since this decision has given rise to criticism and
confusion, it would be useful if the Commission could elaborate on its
interpretation of the ECJ ruling and its implications as part of the stand-
ardisation strategy.
The Danish Government welcomes the Commission’s intention to de-
velop a closer cooperation between national standardisation bodies, the
European industry, European standardisation organizations and the
Commission. We believe that an inclusive dialogue and joint solutions
are vital to addressing the bottlenecks within the ESS. In this respect, it
is encouraging that the joint task force between the Commission, CEN-
Cenelec and ETSI is already up and running to tackle these issues.
The Danish Government finds that the initiatives outlined in the
roadmap are good starting points and recommends that the Commission
reports to the Committee on Standards (CoS) on the progress, using key
performance indicators (KPIs).
The problem definition in the roadmap’s section A (2) mentions the pre-
scriptive standardisation requests and delayed citation, but it is im-
portant to add that a lack of clear criteria for approval contributes also
to delays. Streamlining Commission practices, so that the same clear
criteria are applied across different Commission services will increase
the chances that standards fulfil the quality requirements and reduce de-
lays. An efficient standardisation process requires clear criteria for the
approval of harmonised standards by the Commission and subsequent
citation in the Official Journal of the European Union
without delay,
as it is phrased in the Standardisation Regulation. It is our hope that the
efforts proposed in the roadmap will also lead to a better solution with
regards to the format of standardisation requests, e.g. by introducing
some element of flexibility without compromising legal certainty. These
suggestions were part of the member states’ non-papers
on harmonised
standards, which were also directly referenced in the roadmap.
The Danish Government is looking forward to working with the Commis-
sion and other stakeholders to make sure European standardisation can
reach its full potential and stands ready to contribute throughout the pro-
cess.