What role do standards play in the home appliance sector? Michał Zakrzewski, APPLiA Policy Director for Digital and Competitiveness, discussed the benefits of APPLiA’s long standing cooperation with CEN and CENELEC, towards establishing a cohesive, well-functioning, standardisation system for Europe, at a co-organised webinar “Together to make stronger standards for Europe: how can you cooperate with CEN and CENELEC?”.
The EU standard making system, which perfectly combines the role of standards and legislation, within the New Legislative Framework, is a remarkable success story, delivering multiple and multi-layered advantages. An inclusive, collaborative and democratic process, between EU Standardisation bodies and EU organisations, is key to the implementation of harmonised standards which are applied across the Single Market. This helps to ensure the protection of consumers, allows for cross-border trade, ensures the interoperability of products, encourages innovation and technological development, and facilitates the growth of businesses. Interestingly enough, Zakrzewski explained how, “the standardisation system plays a key role in providing consumers with safe, more sustainable and energy efficient home appliances.” In this context, he highlighted the importance of preserving a legislative framework where essential requirements for products are developed by the European Standardisation Organisations and then timely cited by the European Commission in the OJEU under respective legislations. This way, the standards remain voluntary, even if they are cited in the OJEU. However, once cited, they significantly help the market surveillance authorities to monitor products more effectively and allow manufacturers to use them to show compliance with the respective legislation, by ensuring the presumption of conformity. The combination of APPLiA’s National Associations and Direct Members who provide their technical expertise alongside the 34 national standards agencies of CEN and CENELEC, provides a strong relationship with the European Commission to ensure that standards correspond with any relevant EU legislation.
The physical testing of products is one means of ensuring the compliance of appliances to help establish a fairly functioning Single Market. “Improved market surveillance provides a pathway towards improved standards being established,” explained Zakrzewski, which subsequently leads to fewer modifications being needed for products to ensure the safety of consumers. While a lot of work has been done towards the improvement of the standard making process in Europe so far, a key priority remains that of a timely listing in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). This step is essential for the industry as “once a given standard is listed under the respective legislation, it grants manufacturers presumption of conformity, while ensuring product safety and earning consumer trust,” he concluded.
Ultimately, standardisation is a vital process that creates an environment for all stakeholders to come together and share their knowledge, expertise, and technical know-how towards the overall development of the home appliance industry. One of the success stories of the cooperation between CEN and CENELEC and APPLiA revolves around the overall improvement to the safety of appliances in Europe. Working in union to create standards has led to issues related to home appliance safety being raised and subsequently dealt with in a more efficient and timely manner, since the very first liaison agreement between APPLiA and CEN dated from 1999. A clear legislative framework for the home appliance industry to establish new standards should be a prerequisite to ensure a level playing field for stakeholders’ representation.