The European Standardization Bodies CENELEC and CEN (which are the EU regional counterparts to IEC and ISO respectively) have published their 2015 roadmap of new standardization activities. This roadmap reflects the mandates that the two SDOs (standards development organizations) have received from the European Commission (EC) to develop standards needed for future regulations. It provides manufacturers with insight to emerging regulatory areas for environmental compliance of products sold in the EU.
In the Environment section of the roadmap, standardization requests from EC/EFTA include:
- M/424 – Water Framework Directive
- M/478 – Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
- M/503 – Ambient air quality legislation
- M/513 – Gaseous hydrogen chloride (HCl) emissions
- M/514 – Volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions
- M/518 – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
- M/526 – Adaptation to Climate Change
Elements of EU Work Programme for 2015 include:
- 4. Waste recycling
- 6. Air quality and industrial emissions
- 4. Climate change and Resource Efficient Europe
Other standardization and activities relevant to the EEE industry and to be developed in 2015 include:
Resource efficiency – CEN and CENELEC will continue discussions with the European Commission with the aim of identifying possible standards that could contribute to the implementation of the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe (COM(2011) 571), which is one of the flagship initiatives under the Europe 2020 Strategy. It is possible that some new standardization activities will be launched in 2015.
Substances of high concern – CEN will complete the development of a standardization roadmap in relation to substances of high concern in articles, based on consultations with industry representatives and other stakeholders. The aim of this exercise is to identify which new standards might be needed to support the implementation of relevant European legislation such as the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation, the Waste Directives, the POP (Persistent Organic Pollutants) Regulation, and the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment) Directive.
Several standards already exist within the EEE industry to address substance of high concern; however, few such standards exist for other products. Therefore, CEN has been asked to look at possible standards across all products (not just EEE). The key risk for the EEE industry is if any of the standards conflict with the existing EEE standards and force the EEE industry to change its procedures for restricted substance control.