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High-Level Forum on European Standardisation

HLF_standardisation

What is the forum?

The High-Level Forum on European Standardisation (the forum) is an expert group of the European Commission. It was set up in January 2023 as requested by the EU Strategy on Standardisation

The purpose of the forum is to identify standardisation priorities in support of EU policies and legislation, and to discuss horizontal issues such as international leadership and education and skills, in a multi-stakeholder setting.

A 'Sherpa' sub-group supports the forum as the main operational body dealing with the technical preparatory work undertaken and later endorsed by the forum.

What are the objectives of the forum?

The forum serves 3 main objectives

  • to support a green, digital and more resilient single market by identifying the related standardisation priorities and agreeing on avenues for common action
  • to bring more alignment between European policy priorities, industrial innovation and investment activities and standardisation actions
  • to discuss possible work strands in support of the implementation of the EU Strategy on Standardisation in a multi-stakeholder set-up

The work and expected outcomes

The forum is expected to

  • inform the exercise of the Annual Union Work Programme (AUWP) on European Standardisation
  • support key activities for the implementation of the EU strategy on Standardisation
  • make recommendations on how to address specific bottlenecks on standardisation, including on how to improve the European standardisation system, how to improve European representation in international standardisation bodies, how to gather the right level of expertise, etc.

Since it was setup, the forum has been actively working to identify priorities that are then fed into the AUWPs. At the beginning of the mandate, members selected strategic areas around which specific work was organised in the form of workstreams. Those are structured into sectoral - green, digital and resilience - and horizontal, such as 'Education & skills' and 'International'. Some workstreams have already produced deliverables such as recommendations or reports (see below).

Reports and other deliverables

The Annual Activity Report for 2023 summarises all activities undertaken by the forum throughout 2023. The report provides insights into the work plan for 2024 and reflects progress made in various workstreams until 15 November 2023. The report received the forum's endorsement on 21 December 2023.

The forum launched a pledge to enhance education and skills in standardisation. This pledge was signed during the forum's second meeting on 30 November 2023: Pledge on education and skills on standards

Conclusions and recommendations from the 'Wind Power' Workstream 7The European Green Deal and RepowerEU call for a strong cooperation across the energy sector to achieve Europe's ambitious green transition goals. Wind power, a cost-effective renewable energy source, faces challenges at both European and international levels. To address these challenges, Workstream 7 under the remit of the forum has outlined key challenges and discussed how standardisation can help.

Composition

The forum brings together high-level representatives of up to 60 members consisting of stakeholders from EU/EEA countries, European standardisation organisations, industry, civil society and academia. The current forum comprises 55 members. The remaining 5 seats are subject to a continuously open call (without deadline), published on 16 February 2023 on the Calls for application page. Applications can be received at any time throughout the existence of the group.

Its shadow Sherpa sub-group comprises a maximum of 3 representatives (one for each sector of expertise - green, digital and resilience) per member.

The Sherpa level meets when required, whereas meetings of the forum are at most twice a year. The forum and its sub-group shall operate in compliance with the horizontal rules on the creation and operation of Commission expert groups.

All information relevant to the forum is publicly available on the Commission’s Expert Groups transparency registry.

Background

The forum was first presented in the February 2022 Commission Communication, EU Strategy on Standardisation: Setting global standards in support of a resilient, green and digital EU single market and created through Commission decision C(2022)6189 of 1 September 2022. Work officially began in January 2023.