Brussels, 29 March – Small Business Standards (SBS) welcomes the strong focus on SMEs and inclusiveness in the European Parliament’s IMCO Committee’s own-initiative report on the Standardisation Strategy which was approved yesterday. The report provides the Commission and the High-Level Forum on European Standardisation valuable input on areas to focus on when implementing the strategy. 

SBS fully endorses the report approved by the IMCO Committee on 28 March and its concrete proposals to improve the inclusiveness of the standardisation system and the effective participation of SMEs and societal stakeholders.

SBS particularly supports the provisions of the report calling for the Commission and Member States to increase long-term and stable funding for the effective participation and involvement of SMEs and societal stakeholders in standardisation, with a specific focus on international standardisation.

With regards to SMEs’ role at the national level, SBS supports the call for measures to boost their participation in national standardisation and calls on national standardisation bodies to facilitate SMEs’ involvement by identifying standardisation projects of particular interest to SMEs in the annual work programmes. SBS also agrees with the need to exchange best practices to improve the participation of different stakeholders, in particular SMEs and civil society organisations, in standardisation. This is also one of the elements stressed by SBS in the context of the High-Level Forum on European Standardisation.

Finally, SBS supports the need highlighted in the report to increase the focus of the strategy on the uptake and implementation of standards, especially among SMEs, establishing stable and clear criteria, as well as allocating the necessary resources to ensure the timely assessment and citation of harmonised standards. 

Since the publication of the draft report in October 2022, SBS has been vocal in stating its position on the strategy and contributed to the discussions during the public hearing on this subject organised by the IMCO Committee on 23 January.

Commenting on the approved IMCO report, SBS Secretary General Maitane Olabarria said: “We are delighted to see that many of the points of the SBS position on the Standardisation Strategy are reflected in the report. We now intend to ensure that these points are reflected in the different work streams and discussions within the High-level Forum”.