The following article appears in the journal JOM, 42 (12) (1990), p. 46. JOM is a publication of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

The Key Role of Standardization in the European Community

As the European Community (EC) moves closer to a single market, standardization is playing a pivotal role in removing technical barriers to trade in the community and enabling successful attainment of a single market. An appreciation of the way the standardization process is evolving in the EC will enable manufacturers and suppliers within the community and throughout the world to more accurately evaluate the benefits of the single market.

In formulating a standardization policy, the EC relies on legislative measures adopted by its governing institutions, the four most prominent of which are:

• The Commission, which is responsible for formulating policy, drafting legislative proposals and ensuring correct implementation.

• The Council of Ministers, which represents the interests of the 12 member states and is responsible for adopting most EC legislation.

• The European Parliament, whose 518 directly elected members form the EC's principal consultative.

• The European Court of Justice, which may be compared to the U.S Supreme Court and is responsible for interpreting all issues of EC law.

In the community's decision-making process, the Commission drafts proposed legislation, which is then submitted to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament for review.

The community's primary legislation is the EEC Treaty (the Treaty of Rome), as amended in 1987 by the Single European Act. Secondary legislation includes "regulations," "directives" and "decisions." These are the laws that have the most visible and direct influence on corporate and manufacturing activities.

Regulations are binding acts which have direct, general and often immediate application in the member states and are often very specific with regard to the issues they address (e.g., the classification of goods for customs purposes). Directives are also binding measures, but prescribe only the end result to be achieved; the means by which this result is obtained is left to the discretion of the member states. Thus, directives have a built-in flexibility which is absent in other forms of EC legislation. For this reason, as the community strives to harmonize member states' legislation, directives are the most widely used legal instrument. Finally, decisions may be made by the Council of Ministers or the Commission; decisions may consist of either legislative acts (e.g., the proposed council decision on a global approach to testing and certification) or executive measures (e.g., Commission decisions relating to the competitive practice of companies under the EC rules of competition).

Other EC measures, such as "recommendations" and "opinions," do not have legal effect; they do, however, provide insight into policy trends. Also useful in this regard are "Commission Communications," "Council Resolutions" and a growing number of working documents published by the institutions. These documents set forth the community's views on given issues and may form the basis for subsequent legislation.

As signatories of the EEC Treaty, all member states are required to fulfill all obligations set forth in the treaty. This obligation includes the correct implementation of community legislation, failure to do so is considered an infringement of community law, for which member states may be taken before the European Court of Justice.

National standards are often de facto barriers to the free movement of goods in the EC, and achieving the single market requires the removal of these barriers. In this process, the EC is guided by two basic principles: first, where possible, the mutual recognition of national legislation and the criteria for assessing product conformity; second, where necessary, the harmonization of national standards through EC legislation requiring adherence to EC standards.

In 1985, a Council of Ministers' resolution setting forth a "new approach" to technical harmonization distinguished between EC legislative harmonization— in the form of directives, which prescribe observance of "essential requirements" of health and safety to users and consumers—and the drawing up of EC-wide technical standards, a task entrusted to the European standards institutes (e.g., the European Committee for Standardization and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization. Present technical harmonization directives apply, for example, to heavy machinery, toys, telecommunications terminal equipment and electromagnetic compatibility. The corresponding technical specifications designed to ensure compliance with the "essential requirements" contained in these directives are prepared by the standards institutes. Since 1986, about 30 standardization mandates, representing approximately 800 European standards, have been granted to the European Committee for Standardization and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization by the Commission.

First steps toward the elimination of trade barriers arising from member states' nonrecognition of product certification and testing were taken in 1989, with the publication of a Commission Communication on a "global approach" to certification and testing. This communication sets forth the Commission's thinking on the subject, and lays the foundation for possible EC directives designed to implement uniform principles of conformity assessment throughout the EC, including the creation of a European Organization for Testing and Certification (EOTC).

Simultaneously, the Commission submitted its proposal to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament for a decision introducing a series of procedures (or modules) to be followed in conjunction with the testing and conformity assessment of industrial products. This proposal, which has been favorably received by the council and the European Parliament, now awaits a second review by the parliament.

Most recently, the Commission set forth its views on the shape and direction of EC standardization in a May 1990 discussion document or "green paper." The document reviews the merits of establishing a single European standardization system, the component parts o f which would include technical bodies (the EOTC, for example) and the national standards bodies. At the center of this system would be a European Standardization Organization.