Brussels At the beginning of February, the EU Commission wants to present its standardization strategy – a document that can be of great importance for the European export industry. Because Europe runs the risk of losing its prominent position in the field of standardization. China is filling more and more posts in international bodies, at the same time the Europeans have slowed down.
A European norm makes it easy for local companies to sell products all over the world. Other standards can force companies to laboriously adapt their products.
“Setting international standards is crucial for the competitiveness of the EU,” says a paper by the EU Commission. It is about strategic interests in raw materials, satellite data, batteries, hydrogen and microchips.
It is also feared that new technologies will be enforced by Chinese ideology, be it in the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, new cellular networks or brain-computer interfaces.
“The standardization has long since become an industrial policy issue with geopolitical significance below the public radar,” says the Green MEP Reinhard Bütikofer. And the EU Commission confirms: “The European standardization system is currently not adequately equipped for the standardization needs of the future.”
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The new strategy is now intended to remedy this, which sounds more natural than it is. Because so far politics has stayed out of standardization as much as possible. Most of the standards are drawn up by companies themselves and agreed with each other in standardization organizations. Only in a final step does the EU adopt some of the standards.
This form of self-organization has made trade within the EU strong for decades. Sibylle Gabler from the German Institute for Standardization speaks of the “secret of the European internal market”. The EU now wants to consolidate its position in standardization, but not interfere too much in the system.
The Chinese government has fewer inhibitions. “China intends to become a leader in standardization,” says Betty Xu, the China envoy for the European standardization organizations. The tour helps to spread Chinese standards into the world in order to promote the sale of Chinese goods and to bind trading partners to itself.
New European self-confidence
The EU now wants to move in this direction too. “The standardization strategy will support a more self-confident demeanor for European interests,” a commission official told the Handelsblatt.
One problem with this is that standards arise in a network of national, European and international standardization organizations that have different working methods and in which different interests prevail. “We have to strengthen the institutional coherence of the EU standardization policy,” says Bütikofer. “We need a coordinator in the EU Commission who has an eye on and can influence strategically important standardization policies.”
It will also be discussed how the influence of Chinese companies in European standardization can be limited. The focus is on the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (Etsi). In principle, any company in the industry can become a member there.
Officially, the proportion of Chinese members is low. But Huawei, for example, is not only represented by its Chinese parent company, but also by five European subsidiaries. In this way, the impact can be higher than it initially appears.
Excluding Chinese companies is not an option, as it could lead to disadvantages for European companies in China. Some German corporations are reporting problems in getting involved in standardization in China, but others are working well there. You might have to fear countermeasures.
However, it would not be a problem to strengthen the role of EU companies and institutions in the bodies. Companies complain that they are hardly supported when they get involved in the standardization bodies. Membership there costs money and, above all, the engineers’ time.
Federal support is only available for companies that are new to standardization. In China, on the other hand, there are bonuses for companies that have successfully submitted a standardization proposal. Similar incentives could also be set in the EU. “We need more and faster financial support in order to quickly address important international issues,” says Gabler from DIN.
Companies lack engineers
Training will likely also be part of the strategy. There are currently no courses in Germany that turn an engineer into a standardization expert. “European standardization suffers from a shortage of skilled workers,” said Gabler. “The companies often do not have enough engineers who can get involved in the committees.”
The Commission could also take part in so-called “roadmaps”. With regard to future technologies, a survey is made of where there are still gaps in standardization. The aim is to get European companies to act and fill in these gaps before anyone else does.
In Germany there is such a roadmap for artificial intelligence, in the future there could also be one on the subject of hydrogen, for example. Politics does not attract standardization, but neither does it leave it to chance.
Bütikofer says the EU standardization system is not adequately equipped.
(Photo: dpa)
Whether the EU should try to speed up standardization is controversial. It takes an average of 27 months to issue a European standard. In China it is 24 months, now the country is aiming for 18 months. However, too much time pressure on companies could also result in some no longer participating in the process. Ultimately, this could affect the quality of the standards and thus their acceptance.
However, it is also the EU Commission itself that is causing delays. In May, 17 Member States asked the Commission to publish finished standards faster in the Official Journal.
While Europe and China are vying for supremacy in international standardization, Beijing often makes its own rules at home to which Europeans have to adapt if they want to be active in the Chinese market. In many cases, however, the Europeans can get involved. “I urgently recommend European companies to stand up for their interests in the development of Chinese standards,” said Minister Xu.
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