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GAMBICA SUPPLEMENT n

Ensuring that industryhas a bigger role inEuropean standards

GAMBICA has always seenparticipation in regulation andstandards as a key part of what wedo, representing our industry’s view

to European and international regulators andstandards bodies. We are represented onmore than 100 BSI committees which, in turn,influence European and internationalstandards in our sectors.

We interact directly with UK and Europeangovernments and are active in Europethrough organisations such as Orgalime,CAPIEL and CEMEP for engineering andproduct-related representation.

Standards and regulation are often linkedand one area we have been actively involvedin is the use of harmonised standards todemonstrate compliance to legislation.

For some time now, industry has beenpolitely requesting inclusion as an observerto the regulatory Committee on Standards(CoS). This is the body that makes decisionson implementing standardisation requestsfrom the European Commission. Thesedecisions invariably have an impact (be itpositive or negative) on Europeancompanies using harmonised standards toshow compliance with EU productlegislation.

Moreover, standards work is undertakenmainly by industry experts who contributetheir expertise free-of-charge to developEuropean standards – equating to some 95%of the standards development costs.

So why not involve industry as one of theaccepted “observers” that Regulation EU1025/2012 on European Standardisation

denotes to four categories of stakeholders?The recent Competitiveness Councilconclusions stressed “the need for theEuropean Standardisation system to remaininclusive, transparent, market-driven andefficient, and to be fit for the future”.

The ‘Ingress’ (INdustry GRoup on EuropeanStandardisation Strategy) platform hastherefore been born from the common wishto inform European policy-makers aboutindustry’s interests and priorities for usingharmonised standards in the framework ofRegulation EU 1025/2012.

So far, 16 European industry associationshave teamed up within Ingress, with thenumbers expected to rise rapidly – notsurprising when one considers the enormity ofthe issues at stake. GAMBICA is a participatingmember of three of these Europeanassociations – Orgalime, CAPIEL and CEMEP –so our involvement and influence is assured.

According to Orgalime’s director-general,Adrian Harris: “Harmonised standards havebeen one of the great success stories whichhelped Europe’s internal market to take offand develop. But these standards mustalways be relevant to manufacturingcompanies whose markets both in Europeand worldwide depend on them. It istherefore disingenuous to believe that theEuropean Commission and Member Statescan go on discussing the future of Europeanstandardisation and how it can best supportthe application of European legislation andpolicies without manufacturing industry, itsmain stakeholder being involved!”

On Tuesday 24 March, a letter was sent toMrs Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Member of the European Commission forInternal Market, industry,Entrepreneurship and SMEsexplaining: “We are pleased

to inform you of the official launch of theINdustry GRoup on EuropeanStandardisation Strategy (Ingress) whichaims to inform European policy-makersabout manufacturing industry’s interests andpriorities in the area of harmonised standardsin support of the application of Europeanlegislation and policies.”

Ingress is an industry alliance which wasestablished through the joint efforts of its 16founding members. These include: ACEA,BIBM, CAPIEL, CECAPI, CECED, CECIMO,CEMEP, COCIR, EFCEM, ESMIG, EUBAC,EURALARM, EUROPUMP, FEM, ORGALIME andT&D Europe. n

For more information, please visit theIngress Web site (http://ingress1025.eu)or contact Andrew Evans([email protected])

Andrew Evans, head ofGAMBICA’s ProcessInstrumentation & Controlsector, explains the backgroundto a new group that is aiming toinvolve industry more closely inthe European standards-makingprocess.

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