On the occasion of COP26, CEN and CENELEC released the new policy paper “Uniting the world to tackle climate change: COP26 and the commitments of European Standards”. In the document, the two European Standardization Organizations reaffirm their commitment to contributing to the fight against climate change and raise awareness on the actions they are taking to contribute to addressing these challenges.

In particular, the policy paper highlights the role of standards in contributing to the green transition: “Standards foster the process of innovation and encourage the faster development of more environmentally friendly technologies and materials. Whether it is by specifying tests or providing robust definitions that avoid misleading environmental claims, standards have a key role to play in addressing the climate emergency.”

Based on this potential, the standardization community stands ready to play their part in ensuring that both Europe and the world are equipped to deliver the social and economic transition necessary to reduce the effects of climate change, while also helping to deliver the infrastructure necessary to increase the planet’s resilience to adapt to its impacts. The full text of the Policy Paper is available here.

The functioning of society depends on the transportation of goods and persons. The infrastructure required to enable transportation is built to ensure that this can happen safely and smoothly, providing specified high levels of service. As Europe has already experienced on many occasions, reductions in service due to potentially disruptive events, such as floods, earthquakes, heavy snow falls, fog, high winds, or cyberattacks can have significant societal consequences.

In this context, transport infrastructure managers must minimize the impact and potential consequences of these disruptive events. To do so, objective information on the service provided by their transport infrastructure and its resilience to external adverse events is necessary. In order to help them acquire this information, in November CEN and CENELEC published new CWA 17819:2021 'Guidelines for the assessment of resilience of transport infrastructure to potentially disruptive events'. This document provides managers with guidance to proceed a complete and systematic definition of service and measure resilience, in all situations with which the manager is confronted, and to help identify the suitable interventions to enhance such resilience.

CWA 17819:2021 is freely available for download here. It was developed by CEN/CLC/WS 018 ‘Assessment of the resilience of transport infrastructure to potentially disruptive events’, whose Secretariat is held by UNE, Spain’s National Standardization Institute.

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), national standard development body of India, has published Indian Standard IS 17802-"Accessibility for ICT Products and Services, Part 1: Requirements" which is a technical adoption of European Standard EN 301 549 v3.2.1 as developed by CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. Modifications to Indian Standards have been made to adapt it to India and are limited to referencing the relevant regulatory context (Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016) and the official languages of India. Part-2 for this Indian Standards published, to determine the conformity assessment is under formulation at BIS.

Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) present quantified environmental information on the life cycle of a product, thus enabling comparisons between products fulfilling the same function. They are based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, as described in the EN ISO 14040 series of standards. EPD promote transparency and increase awareness around the environmental impact of products. They support manufacturers in substantiating environmental claims and optimizing their supply chain and allow buyers to make informed product comparisons. 

The recently published standard EN 15942:2021 'Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Communication format business-to-business' aims at harmonizing the way in which Environmental Product Declarations are communicated in Europe. This document is applicable to all construction products and services related to buildings and construction works. It details the communication format of the information defined in the related standard EN 15804 'Sustainability of construction works – Environmental product declarations – Product category rules'.

Following its cartoon “Standards@Rail”, CEN & CENELEC conclude the European Year of Rail with a new campaign to share with the European citizens the importance of European standards in the daily life of trains and railways infrastructure.  

In each video, railways experts of CEN/TC 256 ‘Railways applications’ and CLC/TC 9X ‘Electrical and electronic applications for railways’ present to the public a selection of European standard that directly contributes to a safe, efficient, and resilient railways network in Europe: from cybersecurity and wheels to driver's cab displays, aerodynamic or hydrogen refuelling. With these videos, the European citizens can better understand the role of these standards to overcome the current and future challenges met by the railways industry and operators to facilitate the everyday life of travellers and freight transport

To support the transition to cleaner, greener, and smarter mobility, in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal, the Commission today adopted four proposals that will modernize the EU's transport system. By increasing connectivity and shifting more passengers and freight to rail and inland waterways, by supporting the roll-out of charging points, alternative refueling infrastructure, and new digital technologies, by placing a stronger focus on sustainable urban mobility, and by making it easier to choose different transport options in an efficient multimodal transport system, the proposals will put the transport sector on track to cutting its emissions by 90%. 

A smart and sustainable TEN-T: The TEN-T is an EU-wide network of rail, inland waterways, short-sea shipping routes, and roads. It connects 424 major cities with ports, airports, and railway terminals. When the TEN-T is complete, it will cut travel times between these cities.

The scope of the Workshop is to specify a common reference framework and a methodology that allow to evaluate, score, and report the Level of Competence of professionals and workers with regards to specific Areas of Expertise related to energy efficiency and sustainability at building and urban scale (TRAIN4SUSTAIN Competence Quality Standard). The TRAIN4SUSTAIN Competence Quality Standard framework can be defined as a hierarchical classification (taxonomy), structured into 5 levels, which covers the broad scope of energy efficiency and sustainability of buildings and urban areas and reflects the approaches of the most relevant sustainability certification systems at building and urban scale, including the recent Level(s) framework of core sustainability indicators issued by European Commission in October 2020. The TRAIN4SUSTAIN CQS is a living and extendible system that can evolve over time as it is able to receive new inputs for instance, new areas of expertise related to the development of construction technologies, materials, and methodologies, also fulfilling its “future-looking” mission.

he Commission has taken action to improve the cybersecurity of wireless devices available on the European market. As mobile phones, smart watches, fitness trackers and wireless toys are more and more present in our everyday life, cyber threats pose a growing risk for every consumer. The delegated act to the Radio Equipment Directive adopted today aims to make sure that all wireless devices are safe before being sold on the EU market. This act lays down new legal requirements for cybersecurity safeguards, which manufacturers will have to consider in the design and production of the concerned products. It will also protect citizens' privacy and personal data, prevent the risks of monetary fraud as well as ensure better resilience of our communication networks. The delegated act will be complemented by a Cyber Resilience Act, recently announced by President von der Leyen in the State of the Union speech, which would aim to cover more products, looking at their whole life cycle. Today's proposal as well as the upcoming Cyber Resilience Act follow up on the actions announced in the new EU Cybersecurity Strategy presented in December 2020.

The Commission has adopted three work programs for the Digital Europe Programme, outlining the objectives and specific topic areas that will receive a total of €1.98 billion in funding. This first set of work programs includes strategic investments that will be instrumental in realizing the Commission's goals in making this Europe's Digital Decade. The Digital Europe Program aims to bolster Europe's technological sovereignty and bring digital solutions to market for the benefit of citizens, public administrations, and businesses.

The main work program, worth €1.38 billion, will focus on investment in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and data spaces, quantum communication infrastructure, advanced digital skills, and the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society, until the end of 2022. Alongside this main work program, the Commission published two specific work programs: the first one focuses on funding around cybersecurity, with a budget of €269 million until the end of 2022; and the second one focuses on the set-up and operation of the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs, with a budget of €329 million, until the end of 2023.

The European Committee of Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) renewed their cooperation agreement for further five years. Through the agreement, the three organizations aim to enhance the exchange of knowledge and expertise between scientific research and European standardization. The JRC and the European Committee of Standardization look back on a fruitful collaboration of more than 30 years, with its first agreement signed in 1994. The renewal of the collaboration with JRC, initiated in 2016, will continue to provide European and international standardization with scientific input and it will build on lessons learnt and successes achieved. 

One of the main initiatives developed jointly by CEN, CENELEC and JRC is Putting-Science-Into-Standards (PSIS), which aims to facilitate the identification of emerging science and technology areas that could benefit from standardization activities. The PSIS initiative has proven to be a successful example of foresight aimed at the timely identification of new sectors where standardization can enable innovation and promote industrial competitiveness.