In a communication published on Friday 25 August, the European Commission indicated that work on introducing European standards in 2018 would concentrate on the digital and energy sectors.
The Commission explained that by supporting the elaboration of European standards in priority strategic domains in expanding markets, “the Commission intends to provide a competitive edge to European businesses, particularly SMEs”.
In collaboration with European organisations responsible for introducing standards, work will continue in the priority domains identified, such as 5G communication networks, the Internet of things, cloud computing, cyber security and big data technologies. This will also apply to other sectors such as e-health services, smart transport systems and connected and automated vehicles.
In the energy domain, standards are expected to help develop the integrated internal market and promote efficiency in the consumption of resources. According to the Commission, specific action is expected to target the interconnection of electricity networks, promote the diversification of gas supply flows and integrate renewable energies in the energy consumption cluster. Additional efforts are also expected to improve energy consumption meter calculations, on the basis of the current standard being drawn up for measuring ambient air quality at a local level. The elaboration of standards is also expected to help car manufacturers shift to cleaner modes of transport in an effort to boost the reduction in CO2 emissions and other pollutants, explains the Commission.
The Commission also indicates that European standards have been needed to “rectify the current self-certificated and situation” and facilitate the swift distribution of innovative products in the single market such as “3-D printers, certain robots, autonomous vehicles and wind turbines”.
The communication on this issue can be found at: http://bit.ly/2wi9Ra9 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)