Gwenole Cozigou, Director of Construction, Machinery and Standardisation Ecosystems in the European Commission’s DG for Internal Market and Industry (DG GROW), stressed the importance of preserving the “integrity” of the European standardisation system in the face of third-country players, in an exchange with the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) on Wednesday 15 June.
MEPs were holding their first debate on the amendments tabled on Svenja Hahn’s report concerning the regulation on European standards and publications in the field of European standardisation.
As in the last hearing in mid-May (see EUROPE 12954/26), the shadow rapporteurs of the EPP and ECR political groups wanted to touch a standardisation system they consider to be functional as little as possible. Andrea Caroppo (EPP, Italy) wants to find a “balance” between the current situation and the European Commission’s proposal (see EUROPE 12882/3).
Beata Mazurek (ECR, Poland), speaking on behalf of Adam Bielan (Poland), expressed surprise at the exclusion of third country actors from the standardisation discussions. On the other hand, the S&D and the Greens/EFA remain in line with the European Commission on this point.
Gwenole Cozigou gave an unusually long explanation of his institution’s intention. Firstly, he stressed that the amendments introduced by the Commission were very “limited” and that the institution was not seeking to change the nature of European standardisation. The amendment relates to the decision-making process. “At the decision stage, and on the support of European policies and legislation, Europe decides”, he said.
He added: “I am not aware of US standardization work or Chinese standardization where the Europeans will be asked to be part of the decision-making process”.
In this sense, the senior official said that it was not even “desirable” to have players from third countries outside the EU or the European Economic Area in decision-making bodies. Similarly, taking account of opinions at the technical level (where participants also come from third country standardisation organisations) in the decision-making process should not mean that the opinions are systematically incorporated into decisions.
Indeed, blockages sometimes occur in the technical implementation of the European standardisation organisations. The official gave the example of a recent incident in relation to the Radio Equipment Directive, illustrating a “back door” blockage phenomenon.
IMCO is expected to vote on Ms Hahn’s report on 12 July. For its part, the EU Council adopted its general approach on 16 May without changing the European Commission’s proposal (see EUROPE 12953/13). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)