PFUE 2022: a new lease of life for standardization
AFNOR and its members have supported, among others, three topics labelled PFUE2022 by the General Secretariat of the French Presidency of the EU, for their economic and societal interest: equality between women and men, standardization projects in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and the European Commission’s standardization strategy.
These projects were an opportunity for France to pull off a double coup: define common references for the 27 countries and take them to the international stage. This six-month presidency also provided an opportunity to highlight the role of voluntary standardization in Europe’s quest for greater economic sovereignty, as an assembler of best practices to facilitate its dual green and digital transition.
Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton has urged all economic players to get to grips with the issue and invest in it, after a period in which Europe abandoned its “standard-setter” status in favor of others, led by China. “The time has come to take back control of our destiny,” he encourages.
Who will be your Chief Standardization Officer?
The European Commission itself has appointed a Chief Standardization Officer, responsible for ensuring that voluntary standardization bodies can develop standards in response to the EU’s industrial priorities, without non-European players being able to block them. But more broadly, all economic players, from major groups to very small businesses, are invited to devote more resources to the standards tool.
Who will be your Mr. or Mrs. Normalization? Why and how to get involved in voluntary standards? Find out more here.
Within the European Union, France holds its own. Counting the number of standards committees it leads at CEN and Cenelec, France is in 2nd place, behind Germany. At international level, it is a member of the 3rd ISO (general sector) and IEC (electro-technology sector) committees.
AFNOR highlights
Aren’t you standard? Are you in a fog?
In 2021, France is 2nd in the hit-parade of European standard-setting countries. Voluntary standards! Without voluntary standards, it’s impossible to know what best practices are: “if you’re not standard, you’re in the fog”! Developed by industry professionals under the supervision of AFNOR, French standards are often destined to become European or even global standards. Here are a few examples, to be found on our social networks.
Gender equality
Artificial intelligence
Factory of the future
The world of electronic cigarette
Nanotechnology
