The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) announced that several European standards for medical and personal protection have been made "freely" available, the European Commission said on Monday 23 March. The aim is to boost the production of these goods in order to fight COVID-19 and speed up their availability on the internal market.
This announcement is the result of a specific request from the European Commission, in particular from Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, who welcomed the decision of the two organisations. The decision takes immediate effect and concerns eleven standards developed with CEN and potentially three more developed jointly with ISO. These standards cover filtering masks, medical gloves and protective clothing.
This is an important and exceptional announcement," says the institution. Under normal circumstances, standards must be purchased and used in line with the intellectual property right rules, as the copyright of the standards lies with the organisations which have developed the standards. This initiative should enable European and non-Member State companies, the Commission hopes, to get their products onto the internal market more quickly.
The Commission has been manoeuvring since the beginning of COVID-19 to fight the increasing number of obstacles introduced by the Member States in the internal market in order to facilitate the production and movement of essential goods and medical equipment (see EUROPE 12435/8). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)