PFUE: France, Europe’s second-largest standard-setter

As it does every year, AFNOR reviews the standardization committees that France leads at European and international level. In 2021, France will be on the^2nd step of the podium, behind Germany. With a few big wins.

Of the 34 countries represented on CEN-Cenelec through their national standards bodies, how does France rank? Answer: at the head of the pack. AFNOR’s 2021 barometer shows that in terms of the number of committees for which it holds the secretariat, France is in second place, behind Germany. This means that in Europe, France has a say in a number of areas where industry players are drawing up voluntarystandards, in order to share best practices, common methodologies and promote technology interoperability.

 

Source: international barometer of standardization 2021, AFNOR

Looking back, it’s worth noting that France’s weight is growing, with 97 committees and sub-committees held in Europe, compared with 83 in 2015 and 70 in 2006. France has become a leader in management and services, and, along with Germany, in consumer goods, sports and leisure. In 2021, it has taken over the secretariat of the technical committee on postal services (CEN/TC 331), previously provided by the Netherlands, and proposed the creation of a new structure on animal health (CEN/TC 469). By 2020, it had already won responsibility for the committee on electronic archiving (CEN/TC 468) and energy measurement plans (CEN/CLC/JTC 15).

France leads the way in gender equality

On a global scale, France ranks^3rd, behind Germany and the USA, and just ahead of Japan, the UK and China, which continues to grow every year. This^3rd place is obtained by observing the secretariats held by both ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, and IEC, the ISO for electro-technologies. On this scale, a major victory in 2021: the leadership of the project on a new voluntary standard relating to equality between women and men. By 2020, France had won responsibility for committees on surfaces with biocidal and antimicrobial properties (ISO/TC 330) and on biodiversity (ISO/TC 331). On the subject of women and men, France is not starting from scratch: it published a document of good practice in the summer of 2021. Since then, the subject has been at the heart of the French presidency of the European Union. Interested? AFNOR is organizing a free PFUE webinar on February 25, 2022.

The European silver medal is particularly noteworthy in the first half of 2022, when France holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union, and in the wake of the presentation of the European standardization strategy by Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market. Detailed on February 2, 2022, this strategy re-establishes voluntary standards as key tools in the economic leadership that Europe claims to have, or is aiming for, in various fields such as raw materials recycling, semi-conductors, extra-financial reporting, and so on. ” European standardization was built in response to the development of the European project. Unsurprisingly, the Franco-German couple are the countries most involved in the work of CEN and CENELEC: between them, France and Germany manage more than half the technical structures of these committees. “comments Camille Cloitre, in AFNOR’s international affairs department.