Standardisation: broader use in Community policy

The Committee on Economic Affairs adopted the proposal for a resolution on standardization in Community policy on the basis of the Meier report. In terms of efficiency, it advocated closer cooperation and unity between European standardization organizations, while preventing standardization from becoming the province of the public authorities. The priorities highlighted in the proposal for a resolution include: the involvement of and scientific information for consumer protection associations in the process of drafting standards, information campaigns and training and further training programmes for small and medium-sized enterprises involved in the process, various links between standards institutions and the countries of central and eastern Europe in order to facilitate their integration and the establishment of close ties between standardization and research and development activities. Although it recommended a statute for a Community agency for the European standardization and certification bodies, the committee called on the Commission to continue to encourage the publication of horizontal standards and implement consensus methods in its relations with the bodies in question and for its new proposal for a specific standardization programme to give greater emphasis to thematic quality networks which could act as a distribution and technological training centre and help to achieve a sustainable development model. Finally, the creation of trans-European networks and the introduction of a European mark in European quality policy were an example of the type of action where the draft resolution called for standardization.�