European standardisation package

In the context of the EU’s single market strategy (link to a compilation of blog posts), I turned to European standardisation this week with a few entries on my Finnish and Swedish blogs:

Eurooppaoikeus (FI): Sisämarkkinastrategian eurooppalaiset standardit (19 April 2017)

Eurooppaoikeus (FI): EFTA ja Euroopan talousalue: eurooppalaiset standardit (19 April 2017)

Grahnblawg (SV): EU:s standardiseringspaket (20 April 2017)

Grahnblawg (SV): Europeiska tjänstestandarder (20 April 2017)

Next a basic presentation of European standardisation in English as part of the single market strategy.

Single market strategy

European standardisation is part of the Commission’s internal market (single market) strategy:

Upgrading the Single Market: more opportunities for people and business; Brussels, 28.10.2015 COM(2015) 550 final

Section 3.1. of the communication was called Modernising our standards system (p. 12), which boiled down to two concrete actions (p. 21):

• Joint initiative on Standardisation (2016)
• Dedicated guidance on service standardisation (2016)

Standardisation package

Last year the European Commission presented its standardisation package, with an over all vision presented in the communication:

European standards for the 21st century; Brussels, 1.6.2016 COM(2016) 358 final

The other parts of the standardisation package were summarised on the pages 10-11:

Together with the April ICT Standards Communication and with the Joint Initiative, today's standardisation package lays down a coherent Commission vision on the role of standardisation in support of policy making. It is made up of the following documents:

1. The Annual Union Work Programme for European Standardisation 2017: identifying strategic priorities and objectives for European standardisation, taking into account the EU’s long-term strategies for jobs and growth such as the action plan on circular economy, and indicating the European standards and European standardisation deliverables that the Commission intends to request from the European standardisation organisations in 2017.

2. The “Article 24 Report” and REFIT Document setting out evidence on the functioning of the ESS and supporting the policy developments under the JIS.

3. Service Standards Staff Working Document: "Tapping the potential of European service standards to help Europe's consumers and businesses".

The aim of this blog post is just to document the parts in a more exact manner, for the convenience of readers.

ICT standardisation

A little earlier the Commission had published a communication on standardisation regarding information and communication technology (ICT) related to the digital single market:

ICT Standardisation Priorities for the Digital Single Market; Brussels, 19.4.2016 COM(2016) 176 final  

Joint initiative on Standardisation

The Joint initiative on Standardisation (JIS), which was discussed on pages 5-8 of the vision communication COM(2016) 358, was signed on 13 June 2016, and the text can be downloaded here: C(2016) 3211 final - Annex  "Joint Initiative on Standardisation under the Single Market Strategy" to the Commission Decision on the approval and the signing of the Joint Initiative on Standardisation.

Annual Union Work Programme 2017

The Annual Union Work Programme for European Standardisation 2017 was published as a communication:

The annual Union work programme for European standardisation for 2017; Brussels, 1.6.2016 COM(2016) 357 final

The communication was accompanied by a staff working document:

Commission staff working document on the implementation of the actions foreseen in the 2016 Union work programme for European standardisation, including the implementing acts and mandates sent to the European standardisation organisations; Brussels, 1.6.2016 SWD(2016) 185 final

“Article 24 Report” and REFIT Document

The first document is the so called Article 24 report from the Commission:

Report on the implementation of the Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 from 2013 to 2015; Brussels, 1.6.2016 COM(2016) 212 final

The so called REFIT document was officially the accompanying Commission staff working document:

Analysis of the implementation of the Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 from 2013 to 2015 and factsheets; Brussels, 1.6.2016 SWD(2016) 126 final  

Service standards SWD

Service standards were discussed on the pages 9-10 of the vision communication COM(2016) 358, but the guidance came in the accompanying Commission staff working document:

Tapping the potential of European service standards to help Europe's consumers and businesses; Brussels, 1.6.2016 SWD(2016) 186 final

Standardisation regulation

Almost every document refers to the fairly new Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 on European standardisation, applied from 1 January 2013. Let us glance at the scope:

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation establishes rules with regard to the cooperation between European standardisation organisations, national standardisation bodies, Member States and the Commission, the establishment of European standards and European standardisation deliverables for products and for services in support of Union legislation and policies, the identification of ICT technical specifications eligible for referencing, the financing of European standardisation and stakeholder participation in European standardisation.

StandarDays

Yesterday and today (20-21 April 2017) the StandarDays event in Brussels, hosted by CEN and CENELEC, has gathered experts from national and European standardisation organisations, EU institutions and enterprises for updated information on European standards.

You can follow the event under the Twitter hashtag #StandarDays

Ralf Grahn

Single market compliance and enforcement

In the blog entries Evidence-based European market reforms? and  Services in EU single market strategy and European standards, public procurement and intellectual property, we used the analytical staff working document underpinning the promised proposals and actions in parallel with the condensed single market communication:

A Single Market Strategy for Europe - Analysis and Evidence; Brussels, 28.10.2015 SWD(2015) 202 final (108 pages)

Upgrading the Single Market: more opportunities for people and business; Brussels, 28.10.2015 COM(2015) 550 final (22 pages)

Compliance and enforcement

Section 4.1. A culture of compliance and smart enforcement encompasses pages 16-17 of the communication and pages 79-86 of the supporting working document.

The SWD (page 83) makes this remark on implementation plans for new legislation:

As part of the Better Regulation Agenda, the Commission should ensure efficient monitoring of EU law throughout the full regulatory life-cycle from the proposal of new legislation, to its adoption, transposition, notification, implementation, enforcement and evaluation, with the overall objective of ensuring clarity, operability and enforceability of EU legislation.

The SWD paper explains the Better Regulation Agenda, but since we are interested in new legislation connected with the single market strategy, we refer to the more detailed better regulation communication, which was accompanied by two Commission staff working documents:

Better regulation for better results - An EU agenda; Strasbourg, 19.5.2015 COM(2015) 215 final

Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT): State of Play and Outlook; Strasbourg, 19.5.2015 SWD(2015) 110 final

Better Regulation Guidelines; Strasbourg, 19.5.2015 SWD(2015) 111 final

At least with regard to the number of pages, the communication is the mere tip of the better regulation iceberg.

The Commission outlined a new instrument for monitoring the single market and its planned scope, SWD(2015) 202 pages 85-86:

The ability to obtain timely, comprehensive, reliable and robust quantitative and qualitative information directly from affected firms would improve enforcement of the Single Market acquis and help addressing flaws in existing legislation. The introduction of a Single Market Information Tool (SMIT), which will allow the collection of information directly from selected market participants, will help the Commission to ensure the optimal enforcement of the Single Market acquis.

The use of the SMIT by the Commission will be decided on a case by case basis and will be adequate and proportionate to the intended objectives. This tool will not be a blanket right to require information from any firm at any time. First of all, before engaging into such an exercise, the Commission will analyse whether already available data are sufficient to address the issues at stake. Second, information request will only be addressed to a subset of the most affected firms. Third, the data sought through the SMIT will normally be readily available to the market players concerned, such as questions relating to the market behaviour, cross-border trade and business model and will typically cover factual market data (e.g. market size and share, level of imports etc.), company data (e.g. cost structure, profits, volumes, new products, ownership, control, participations in other companies, etc.) and facts-based analysis of the market functioning (e.g. regulatory and entry barriers, entry cost, growth rate of the market, growth perspectives or overcapacity). The Commission will consider existing best practice, including from the competition law domain, when shaping the procedural and administrative process of the SMIT, notably with regard to confidentiality-related issues.

In a nutshell:

Data analytics tool for monitoring Single Market legislation (2017)

Proposal for market information tools allowing the Commission to collect information from selected market players (2016)

Right now, the latest edition of the online Single Market Scoreboard is 07/2016.

Services Directive: notification

An improved notification procedure with regard to the Services Directive 2006/123, section 4.2, communication pages 17-18, SWD pages 86-90, was seen as necessary:

As a result, the additional economic gains to be achieved from reforms carried out in 2012 to 2014 are limited. Of the 1.8 % potential additional GDP growth estimated by the Commission in 2012, reforms adopted by mid-2014 are estimated to yield a limited EU GDP long-term growth of no more than 0.1 %.

This lack of progress shows the need for an improved notification procedure allowing for more preventive enforcement.

In short:

Legislative proposal modelled on the successful features of the current notification procedure under Directive (EU) 2015/1535 for services currently not covered by that Directive (2016)

Single market for goods

Communication pages 18-20 and SWD pages 90-100, section 4.3. Strengthening the Single Market for goods taught us that the Commission was going to present an EU-wide Action Plan to increase awareness of mutual recognition and revise the Mutual Recognition Regulation 764/2008.  

Briefly:

Action Plan to increase awareness of the mutual recognition principle (2016)

Revision of Mutual Recognition Regulation (2017)

Comprehensive set of actions to further enhance efforts to keep non-compliant products from the EU market (including a possible legislative initiative) (2016-2017)

Ralf Grahn

European standards, public procurement and intellectual property

In the blog entries Evidence-based European market reforms? and  Services in EU single market strategy, we saw that the analytical staff working document underpinning the reforms was meant to be used in parallel with the condensed single market communication:

A Single Market Strategy for Europe - Analysis and Evidence; Brussels, 28.10.2015 SWD(2015) 202 final (108 pages)

Upgrading the Single Market: more opportunities for people and business; Brussels, 28.10.2015 COM(2015) 550 final (22 pages)

In this blog post we are going to take a brief look at how these documents deal with European standards, public procurement and intellectual property.  

European standards

Encouraging modernisation and innovation starts with section 3.1 Modernising our standards system, page 12 of the communication and pages 55-58 of the SWD, dealing with a ‘Joint initiative on Standardisation’ and guidance on European service standards.

The aims and benefits of the standardisation initiative were explained like this in the SWD(2015) 202, page 56:

Therefore, the Commission proposes a ‘Joint initiative on Standardisation’ to be concluded with all actors in order to enhance and modernize the current system. The Joint initiative will encompass a joint vision in order to develop solutions to issues arising from servicification, digitalisation and focus on interoperability as a result of the Priority ICT standards plan. It will also explore how the gap between research/innovation priorities and European Standardisation could be analysed in a more systematic and forward looking way and more effectively bridged, as well as how to produce timely standardisation deliverables.

The Joint initiative is a way to enable Europe to become a global standardisation hub. This means keeping a system able to impact on growth (between 0.3 and 0.9 % depending on the current figures registered from different Member States), contributing to the GDP growth, maintaining and increasing competitiveness of the EU economy.

The SWD(2015) 202, page 57, stated that in contrast to goods, the development of service standards has been much more limited, both within member states and at EU level. As a result, service standards account for only 2 % of all EU standards.

Service standards would bring the same kind of benefits as product standards, but national standards may create obstacles to cross-border trade. The Commission promised to explore voluntary European service standards and to issue dedicated guidance as needed:

Dedicated guidance on service standardisation (2016)  

Public procurement

The communication COM(2015) 550 treated More transparent, efficient and accountable public procurement (section 3.2) on pages 13-14, while the supporting SWD(2015) 202 discussed the issues on pages 58-68.  

Despite a new 2014 framework for public procurement, the Commission saw a need for various forms of assistance to authorities in the member states, given the importance of government spending and of procurement aims:

Government expenditure on works, goods and services represents around 19 % of EU GDP, accounting for more than EUR 2.3 trillion annually. Efficient public procurement is key to addressing major policy challenges, including growth and jobs, fiscal discipline, the modernisation of public administration, the fight against corruption and collusion, market access for SMEs, the trust of citizens in public authorities and democracy, innovation and environmentally and socially sustainable growth.

Improved data, ex ante assessment of large infrastructure projects, cooperation among review bodies and better detection of irregularities were among the actions the Commission was going to pursue. In a nutshell:

Public procurement: voluntary ex ante assessment mechanism for large infrastructure projects (2017)

Initiatives for better governance of public procurement through the establishment of contract registers, improved data collection and a networking of review bodies (2017-2018)

Intellectual property

Pages 14-15  of the communication and 68-79 of the working paper encompassed section 3.3. Consolidating Europe’s intellectual property framework, not least because:

IP intensive industries account directly for 26 % of all jobs in the EU and generate almost 39 % of total EU economic activity (GDP). They pay higher remuneration than non-IP intensive industries, with a premium of more than 40 %.  

The section discussed intellectual property (IP) use by SMEs, including trade secrets, the unitary patent and national patents, supplementary protection certificates (SPCs), reviewing the intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement framework (IP infringements), and indications of geographical origin for non-agricultural products.

The bare bones of the promised actions:

Initiatives to modernise the intellectual property rights (IPR) framework, including a review of the EU IP enforcement framework (2016-2017)

On the other hand, copyright is dealt with in the framework of the digital single market:

A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe; Brussels, 6.5.2015 COM(2015) 192 final

See section 2.4 of the communication, Better access to digital content - A modern, more European copyright framework (from page 6).

Ralf Grahn

Testing two annual reports on Juncker Commission 2015

With regard to the Annual Growth Survey 2015 and the European Semester  and the Commission Work Programme 2015, what did the Juncker Commission achieve during its first year?

We use the internal market (single market) as a sample, when we test two potential sources of information.  

General report 2015

In order to find out, we can go to The EU in 2015 - General report on the activities of the European Union. The General report can be downloaded for free at the EU Bookshop in PDF or EPUB format. One of the best things about the General report is that it is published in the official EU languages.

The General report has been shrinking - losing text and exact references - while adding glossy features, such as pictures, graphic colour schemes and other brochure-like qualities, but it is still tolerably readable.    

Chapter 4 informs us about the Commission’s strategic aim: a deeper and fairer internal market with a strengthened industrial base (pages 36-42; with digital and network issues elsewhere).

The most important matters, such as the single market strategy and the capital markets union with its action plan, are mentioned briefly, with links to Commission press releases and informative web pages, but also multimedia trivia.

With the help of the links, the General report 2015 could still serve as an introduction to developments in the single market.

Swedish EU report   

In order to compare, we go to the annual report from the Swedish government to the parliament (Riksdag) about activities in the European Union:

Regeringens skrivelse 2015/16:115 Verksamheten i Europeiska unionen under 2015

Here we are interested mostly in part 7 about competitiveness (konkurrenskraftsfrågor) on pages 162-182 and part 8 about transport, telecommunications and energy on pages 183-195.

The style is sober, even austere, but it works well.

Not only does the report offer 336 pages of readable (black on white) and factual text,  without pictures or multimedia entertainment, but the government often refers to its running commentary: the memorandum (faktapromemoria) it wrote to the Riksdag about a new proposal or issue in the EU.

Here is an example.

Upgrading the Single Market

The first example of this kind of documentation comes on the initial page about the development of the internal market (p. 162), where the brief presentation of the new internal market strategy refers to a five page memorandum with a more detailed overview and the government’s preliminary view:

Regeringskansliet Faktapromemoria 2015/16:FPM17 Inremarknadsstrategin; Utrikesdepartementet 2015-12-02

The memorandum refers to the relevant EU document, here the communication (I choose the English version for your convenience):

Upgrading the Single Market: more opportunities for people and business; Brussels, 28.10.2015 COM(2015) 550 final (22 pages)

The cover of the communication tells us that it was accompanied by two staff working documents, easy enough to find through Eur-Lex once identified, both in English only, with the latter divided into three parts like ancient Gallia:

A Single Market Strategy for Europe - Analysis and Evidence; Brussels, 28.10.2015 SWD(2015) 202 final (108 pages)

Report on Single Market Integration and Competitiveness in the EU and its Member States; Brussels, 28.10.2015 SWD(2015) 203 final PART 1/3

 

Report on Single Market Integration and Competitiveness in the EU and its Member States; Brussels, 28.10.2015 SWD(2015) 203 final PART 2/3  

Report on Single Market Integration and Competitiveness in the EU and its Member States; Brussels, 28.10.2015 SWD(2015) 203 final PART 3/3   

Alternatively, the single market integration report is downloadable in one piece (112 pages) through this Commission web page.

[We notice that we once again have a report on single market integration (and competitiveness), but not as a part or pillar of the Annual Growth Survey, which kicks off the European Semester.]  

***

I sometimes wonder who the presumed reader of the glossy General report is, but in practice it does serve the purpose of information search in 23 official EU languages (all except Gaelic).

Primarily, the Swedish annual EU report serves only some 20 million readers of the main Nordic languages, but I wanted to show an easily downloadable and directly readable alternative, reminiscent of the well documented and substantial EU General report a decade or so ago.  

How about the rest of the EU and EEA countries?

Do their governments or parliaments publish annual or thematic reports on developments in the European Union or the European Economic Area (EEA)?

Ralf Grahn