CECIMO press release: Successful launch of the platform INGRESS to ensure industry’s involvement in the European standardisation strategy

The INGRESS (INdustry GRoup on European Standardisation Strategy) platform has been launched today by its 16 founding European industry associations. The multi-stakeholder platform aims at facilitating the representation and advocacy of industry interests groups on European standardisation policy matters, given that industry is the main contributor (funding 95% of standards’ development costs) and user of European standards.

Regulation EU 1025/2012 on European standardisation of 14 November 2012 grants the legal basis for the European Commission to request the three European standardisation organisations – CEN, CENELEC and ETSI – to develop standards which have the potential to support EU legislation and policies, provided that they are used by interested stakeholders. It also provides the status of observer to four categories of stakeholders in the regulatory Committee on Standards (CoS). The CoS is responsible for taking implementing decisions, such as on new standardisation requests, implementation guidance or discussions on the possible review of the Regulation. Unfortunately, industry’s participation in this Committee was not foreseen by the European regulator.

One of INGRESS’ primary objectives is to be recognised by the European Commission as a relevant stakeholder to participate, as an observer, in the Committee on Standards (CoS). As European standards are voluntarily used by companies to primarily support their needs, it is necessary to ensure that the European Commission’s standardisation requests will be equally attractive to industry experts who participate in the standards’ development process and, eventually, offer the best chances to a broader uptake of harmonised standards by companies.

"The European Commission’s standardisation requests could have a positive or negative impact on European industries, which are one of the main drivers of investment, growth and jobs within Europe. Harmonised standards have been one of the great success stories which helped Europe’s internal market to take off and develop. But these standards must always be relevant to manufacturing companies whose markets both in Europe and worldwide depend on them. Industrial policy, including standardisation policy, matters to keep or even reinforce competitive edge on advanced manufacturing sectors like, machine tools. Our industry is heavily contributing to the standardisation process. The issues of our sector are mainly addressed by CEN TC 143 (Machine Tools - Safety), however we would like to be involved also in earlier stages not only when the technical work starts," said Filip Geerts, CECIMO Director General.

About CECIMO
CECIMO is the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries. We bring together 15 national Associations of machine tool builders, which represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe*, over 80% of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers 98% of total Machine Tool production in Europe and about 39% worldwide. It accounts for almost 150,000 employees and a turnover of nearly €23 billion in 2014. Approximately 80% of CECIMO production is shipped abroad, whereas more than half of it is exported outside Europe*. For more information visit www.cecimo.eu
*Europe = EU + EFTA + Turkey

For further media enquiries:
Contact person:
Filip Geerts, Director General
Tel +32 2 502 70 90 / Fax +32 2 502 60 82
filip.geerts@cecimo.eu