The ETSI Special Committee EMTEL (emergency communications) has released a report, ETSI TR 103 582, studying use cases and communications involving IoT devices in the provision of emergency situations. This report also provides recommendations on standardization requirements that could enhance the safety of these communications.

This report considers communications involving IoT devices in all types of emergency situations, such as emergency calling, mission critical communications, Public Warning System communications and adds a new emergency communications domain identified as automated emergency response, where IoT devices can act after receiving a trigger to prevent hazardous situations.

Newly published CEN Guide 17 ‘Safety of pressure equipment - Rules and recommendations for the drafting and presentation of safety standards’ gives some guidelines on how to develop safety standards for pressure equipment. In particular, it provides clear recommendations on the criteria for the selection of new work items and for procedures to prepare, produce or revise standards in an efficient and effective way, focussing on safety aspects of pressure equipment. Standards developed following the new Guide contribute to preventing accidents and reducing waste. They also enable manufacturers and suppliers to market and sell equipment to customers throughout Europe and around the world.

In the scope of this deliverable, pressure equipment covers a wide range of products from consumer products such as pressure cookers and portable fire extinguishers, through to major industrial applications such as reactors, columns, boilers, steam generators, heat exchangers, industrial piping and safety device for the power generation, food, chemical, pharmaceutical, oil and gas sectors.

Following recent developments in Artificial Intelligence and the challenges identified by the EU Commission creating a need for standardization, the CEN-CENELEC/BTWG 6 “ICT Standardization policy” has proposed the creation of a Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence.

Challenges identified in the European Commission’s Communication ‘Artificial Intelligence for Europe’, COM(2018) 237, refer to the deployment, interoperability, scalability, societal acceptability/ concerns, safety and liability of AI, thus creating a need for standardization. The CEN-CENELEC Focus Group on AI is the starting point to support the identification of specific European Standardization needs. It will also address big data in order to mirror the standardization work at international level.