The European Commission has proposed a reform of the way the European Union draws up its technical standards, promising to cut the average time needed to produce one from six years to four.
Those standards fix what a product or service must do before it can be sold across the single market, from the safety of a toy to whether a phone charger fits. They let a manufacturer meet one set of technical requirements rather than adapt to the rules of each member state.
To shorten the process, the Commission said on October 6 that it would set clearer deadlines for the standards it requests and simplify the procedures behind them. It would also allow existing technical specifications to be used in certain cases while a definitive standard is still being written.
Other specialist organisations could be brought into the work where needs are urgent or highly specific. Brussels calculates the changes could cut the process by a third, letting firms show compliance sooner and reach the market faster.
The reform would also make harmonised standards and those cited in EU legislation free to consult. That follows rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union, in the Malamud case in March 2024 and again in April 2026, that such texts form part of Union law and must be available at no cost.
The measure would cover about 3,650 of the roughly 27,000 standards held in the catalogues of the European standardisation bodies, a little over one in 10. The Commission said it would create dedicated repositories so companies, public authorities, civil society and citizens could find them.
National standardisation bodies would be obliged to cut the costs small and medium-sized firms face when taking part. The presence of civil society, academia and public authorities would also be reinforced.
Brussels wants tighter European coordination on international standards as well, particularly in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and batteries. It acknowledged that the EU increasingly struggles to produce rules in time for companies to show compliance with its own legislation.
A new expert centre on European standardisation would coordinate priorities and steer the European position internationally.
The proposal forms part of a wider simplification drive that has already produced a string of omnibus packages and a deal to cut red tape for defence procurement, as the Commission tries to answer industry complaints about compliance costs.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is among the leaders who have said EU bureaucracy is smothering industrial development, a charge Brussels has promised to address.
The text must now be negotiated and approved by the European Parliament and the 27 member states before it can enter into force, a process likely to take years of its own.
