Evaluation and consultation on the standardisation regulation

At the end of June, the report evaluating Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 was published on the website of the European Commission. This legal act has been in force since 1 January 2013 and defines a new legal framework for the interface between the Commission and the (privately managed) European standardisation system for the provision of harmonised standards in support of EU policies and legislation.

The evaluation of the Regulation was intended to provide a sound analysis of its current effectiveness, which will feed into the subsequent initiative to revise the legal act. We have summarised the two publications in this short information.
 

Evaluation of Regulation No. 1025/2012

The study was conducted on behalf of the Commission as part of an exchange with stakeholders. The experts summarised the key points of the evaluation as follows:

1. Effectiveness: Although the Regulation has shortened the time needed to develop harmonised standards, the average duration is still long, at six years.
2. Efficiency: Although procedures to simplify the adoption of standards have been introduced, new administrative procedures have made the overall process more complex and less efficient.
3. Coherence: The Regulation has contributed to greater coherence in the use of harmonised standards, particularly in legal acts under the New Legislative Framework.
4. EU value added: One of the objectives was to eliminate conflicting national standards. This has led to significant added value thanks to the Standardisation Regulation.
5. Relevance: Due to external factors (e.g. the Malamud judgment, a stronger focus on international standardisation, a lack of technical experts, etc.), the experts believe that the EU needs to develop greater innovation capacity and better anticipate future standardisation needs.

Detailed information on the individual aspects can be found in the full text of the evaluation. You can open it via the following link:

Evaluation of Regulation (EU) No. 1025/2012