As part of the 60 years' anniversary celebrations, CEN and CENELEC have launched the project ‘Faces of standardization’: a series of monthly interviews to showcase the human aspect of standardization. In September 2020, CEN/CENELCE published an interview with Mr. Dinesh Chand Sharma, Director – Standards & Public Policy (SESEI).
Read the interview with Dinesh Chand Sharma (SESEI)
Discover the previous interviews in the series
Standards in support of the Green Deal: CEN and CENELEC’s new position paper
Through the Green Deal, the European Commission has set a series of ambitious goals to transition towards a fully green economy and reach the global climate target of net zero by 2050. CEN and CENELEC, as two of the officially recognised European Standardization Organizations (ESOs), know that European Standards (ENs) have a key role to play in making the Green Deal reality. This role, acknowledged by the European Green Deal itself, is presented in the newly-published position paper “Standards in support of the European Green Deal Commitments”.
In particular, the paper presents some recommendations to European policy maker, in order to reap the greatest advantage from European standards:
- Make use of European and international standards to support the European Green Deal actions and initiatives;
- Establish clear overarching principles to guide policy making, that prioritise reduced emissions and reuse of materials, and clear links between the sustainability performance and incentives.
- Request technical standards for specifying the technical details for manufacturers and suppliers to meet legal requirements.
- Identify early on the type of standards needed to support the European Green Deal actions, which can be mapped against existing standards, and identify gaps which need to be addressed through new standard developments.
- Request the development of new standards, or the revision of existing ones, by the ESOs.
- Integrate standardization in European framework programmes aiming to implement the European Green Deal.
A new series of European standards addresses the material efficiency of energy-related products
The transition towards a Circular Economy is widely considered as a necessary step to address the challenges related to the creation of a more sustainable economy. European Standards (ENs) are essential complementing tools that support the implementation of EU legislation, as well as the climate and energy targets, by promoting best practices, improving energy efficiency, safety and providing tools to optimize installations and systems.
In the field of Ecodesign (2009/125/EC) and Energy Labelling (2017/1369/EU), CEN and CENELEC produce European Standards that provide dedicated methods for measuring the energy performance of various energy-related products against the compulsory values and thresholds laid down in the Regulations adopted by the European Commission.
The eight standards were published over the course of 2019 and 2020 by CEN-CENELEC Joint Technical Committee 10 on Energy-related products - Material Efficiency Aspects for Ecodesign (CEN-CLC/JTC 10), whose Secretariat is held by NEC, the Dutch Electrotechnical Committee. They are:
EN 16662-1:2020 a new step for road vehicles safety
The European Committee for Standardization (CEN), recently released the standard EN 16662-1:2020 ‘Road vehicles - Supplementary grip devices (SGD) for tyres of passenger cars and light duty vehicles - Part 1: General safety and performance requirements’.
For the first time, a European standard defines testing methods to ensure both operational and passenger safety and a minimum quality of performance on snow and ice for all devices, independent of their material and construction. It applies to all types of Supplementary grip devices (SGD - metallic, textile, hybrid), such as snow chains, snow socks or hybrid devices. Requirements of construction, wear, performance and comparison tests on snow and ice will allow the manufacturers to qualify their products and ensure operational safety and best quality to the end user.
EN IEC 62645:2020 protects the cybersecurity of nuclear power plants
The risk of cybersecurity threats on computer-based equipment and programmable logic devices used in industrial installations is always topical. In particular, IT equipment has been widely implemented also in nuclear power plants (both existing and newly built ones) to perform operational and safety functions. Therefore, the protection of nuclear power plants against cybersecurity threats is of particular importance to ensure plant safety and operation.
The IEC Subcommittee 45A (IEC – TC 45/SC 45A) on ‘Instrumentation, control and electrical power systems of nuclear facilities’, which is mirrored at European level by CLC/TC 45AX ‘Instrumentation, control and electrical power systems of nuclear facilities’, whose Secretariat is currently held by AFNOR, has been developing a cybersecurity standards framework. This framework is based on the ISO/IEC 27000 series and the security series of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
CEN (the European Committee for Standardization), CENELEC (the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) and the European Co-operation for Accreditation (EA) officially renewed their cooperation Agreement.
The cooperation between CEN, CENELEC and the EA is long-standing: a first Cooperation Agreement was signed in January 2009, and was renewed for the first time in February 2016. This new renewal, for additional three years, allows to ensure the strength, consistency and continuity of the standardization and accreditation system, to the benefit of the New Legislative Framework (NLF).
As part of the agreement, which ensures the links between the European standardization system and the European Quality Infrastructure, CEN, CENELEC and EA agree to regularly exchange relevant information on matters of common interest and participating in the relevant advisory and technical groups of the respective organizations. For example, EA representatives actively participate in CEN and CENELEC activities, and in particular as a liaison partner to the Joint Technical Committee 1 on ‘Criteria for conformity assessment bodies’. In turn, CEN and CENELEC General Assemblies appointed Enda Mc Donnell, CEN Board Member and Director of Standards & Metrology National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), as CEN-CENELEC Representative to the European Accreditation Advisory Board (EAAB).