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World Standards Day 2018 - How will standards meet the Future?

17 October 2018
by anec -- last modified 17 October 2018

The theme of this year's World Standards Day is 'Standards meet the Future', as the rapid change, brought by a new generation of smart technologies, will need standards to help address the challenges ahead. But ANEC stresses that standards will meet the future only if they reflect the needs of civil society.


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Standards impact on society and contribute to making our everyday lives safer. With regulators using standards to support implementation of laws and policies, including in areas of public interest, it is crucial for civil society to engage and participate in standardisation. ANEC voices the collective consumer interest in standardisation and, with peer societal stakeholder associations ECOS and ETUC – which represent the environmental interest and workers respectively, plays an essential role in conveying the needs of civil society in the drafting of standards.

ANEC, ECOS and ETUC have joined with CEN-CENELEC to develop a free interactive eLearning course being released publicly today during the World Standards Day conference, 'Standards meet the Future', hosted by CEN, CENELEC, ETSI, in cooperation with the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The course provides clear and useful information about standards and the standardisation process in Europe, and also at national and international level.

The online training contains several modules to help those interested learn about standards, their development and the role they play in protecting consumers, workers and the environment. It further demonstrates the importance for civil society to engage in standardisation in order to improve, strengthen and add legitimacy to the European Standardisation System.

The course can be found at the link: www.standards4all.eu and also from the ANEC website: http://www.anec.eu/elearning

ANEC is also marking World Standards Day by launching a video to publicise new labels for fuel identifiers, as an example of how standards make consumers' lives easier. With more and more alternative fuels available on the market, it is not always easy for consumers to know which fuel to use in their car.

ANEC contributed to a new European standard* that defines graphical symbols showing the compatibility between a vehicle and fuels on sale across Europe. These new sets of labels for fuel identifiers are applicable for new vehicles placed on the market or registered as of 12 October.

NEC is the European consumer voice in standardisation, defending consumer interests in the processes of technical standardisation and conformity assessment, as well as related legislation and public policies. ANEC was established in 1995 as an international non-profit association under Belgian law and is open to the representation of national consumer organisations in 34 countries. ANEC is funded by the European Union and EFTA, with national consumer organisations contributing in kind. Its Secretariat is based in Brussels.

ANEC - European association for the coordination of consumer representation in standardisation

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ANEC acts as the voice of the European consumer in the development of European legislation related to consumer products and services, and in the elaboration of European technical standards intended to support the implementation of that legislation.

ANEC
32, box 27, Av. de Tervueren, B-1040 Brussels
Tel.: +32-2-743.24.70
Fax: +32-2-706.54.30