Standardization and the European standards organisations

Standardization is a relatively neglected aspect of the EU regulatory process and yet it is fundamental to that process and arguably has recently been the key vehicle in making the single market an economic reality. Yet the key standardization bodies in the EU, the ESOs, are scarcely known to the public and seldom discussed in the literature. In this article we redress this imbalance, arguing that standardization and integration are closely related concepts. We also argue that the ESOs have developed a degree of autonomy in expanding the boundaries of standardization and even in developing their own links with the rest of the world. Recent proposals put forward by the European Commission can be seen as an attempt to reduce that autonomy. These proposals emphasize the speed of, and stakeholder involvement in, standards production, which we further suggest are somewhat conflicting aims.