The House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee has considered
the EU Standardisation Strategy and its potential implications
for the UK and recommended it be further considered by
Parliament.
The committee concluded:
The EU’s Standardisation Strategy is of relevance to the UK, both
in terms of its own strategic interests in influencing standards
internationally and under the terms of the Northern Ireland
Protocol.
For that reason, we will continue to monitor its implementation,
in particular with respect to proposal to modify the voting
processes within the ESOs that could affect the ability of the
BSI to contribute fully to European standardisation processes
(not least where it involves draft EU harmonised standards that
affect Northern Ireland directly under the Protocol). As part of
the EU Standardisation Strategy, the European Commission is also
encouraging the ESOs to undertake a broader process of reflection
on their governance and will be reviewing EU standardisation
regulation as a whole in 2023. These processes could lead to
further changes to how the ESOs operate when producing standards
in support of EU policies. This may ultimately also affect the
UK’s ability to provide input in relation to new European
standards considered to be of particular practical or strategic
interest.
Regrettably, from the Minister’s Explanatory Memorandum it is
unclear how the Government is engaging with the EU to address
strategic issues of mutual interest in the field of
standardisation. While both the EU and UK are independently
pursuing cooperation with the United States in the field of
standard-setting, in particular for new and emerging digital
technologies, they appear to have no strategic engagement
bilaterally. This raises questions, given that the EU/UK Trade
and Cooperation Agreement covers cooperation in the field of
standards and there are clear overlaps between the two sides’
respective interests in that arena.
It is not clear, for example, if the UK will seek to participate
in, or replicate, the EU-US ‘Strategic Standardisation Mechanism’
to exchange information systematically on key standards. We have
therefore written to the Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy to obtain a clearer view of the Government’s
position and its engagement with the EU on these matters. A copy
of that letter is included below.
In anticipation of the Minister’s reply, we draw the EU
Standardisation Strategy to the attention of the Business, Energy
and Industrial Strategy Committee, the International Trade
Committee and—given its implications in the context of the
Northern Ireland Protocol—the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
Read the full report here
