Practical Proposals for European ICT Standardisation

Revision of Standardisation Regulation (EU) 1025/2012

Initial position

The Standardisation Regulation enables effective cooperation between industry and policymakers to deliver high-quality harmonised standards within the European Standardisation System (ESS). Recent lawsuits and the push to standardise emerging digital technologies create issues in implementing the Regulation.

Bitkom rating

The ESS has proven a well-established and effective system that delivers high-quality standards. Improvements should be driven by industry, with only a few targeted legislative adjustments made by the Commission. This approach preserves stability while ensuring the ESS runs smoothly and adapts to the needs of the digital sector.

The most important takeaway

Our suggestions are addressed to the Commission and to the standardisation bodies:

• Open source and global consortia can be integrated into the current system
  Standards from global consortia should enter the ESS after consensus-based validation (e.g. a European PAS), and processes for involving the open-source community must be simplified. We reject open calls, which would scatter resources and weaken coordination.
• Industry-driven alternatives to common specifications
  Granting presumption of conformity to alternative deliverables from standardisation bodies enables the industry to develop interim solutions quickly until harmonised standards are available.
• Leverage free access for easy access
  Once a system exists that offers free access to legally relevant parts of harmonised standards without undermining the ESOs’ financial stability, standards should be accessible within a few clicks, and draft standards should be published early to gather standard user feedback.
• A Joint IT Standardisation Hub between CEN/CENELEC and ETSI
  Reduce fragmentation in digital standardisation through a single hub that brings together all horizontal IT work and operates with open, direct and transparent processes welcoming to IT and open-source experts. The IT hub should not be understood as a fourth ESO, but as a coordination platform for existing activities within the ESOs.