Euralarm, Europe’s trade association representing the European electronic fire safety and security Industry, is stepping up its involvement in the Joint Initiative on Standardisation to solve current fire and security issues such as the publication of standards under the Construction Products Regulation, and prepare for the future.
The Joint Initiative on Standardisation, JIS, first launched on June 2016 under the Dutch Presidency of the EU Council, now counts nearly 100 signatories: national governments, the standardisation community and major European advocacy groups, including Euralarm. The initiative is led jointly by the EU Commission and by the Industry, and Euralarm has secured a position of choice as one of the sectorial trade associations represented in the JIS steering committee and also now in a growing number working groups or 'actions'.
The JIS is set on the premise that the current European standardisation system must evolve to accompany “the changing nature of the economy, diversification of business models, the ever-increasing role of ICT and the growing importance of services.” Euralarm was influential in launching the debate on the current shortcomings of Europe’s standardisation system by publishing in 2012 a briefing paper on 'Market Driven Standardisation'. Most topics covered by the paper found their way in the Joint Initiative's founding statement, part of the EU's Single Market Strategy.
Illustrating the problems currently encountered by the fire and security industry is the fact that the EU Commission currently withholds the publication of about 100 standards on the grounds that they are not compliant the Construction Products Regulation, the CPR, covered in JIS action 5. In its current interpretation, the CPR does not work for products on which lives can depend as it introduces 'classes of performance' rather than 'pass/fail criteria'. This has the potential to make low quality products in fire safety more common on the European market.
With the support of its partner Orgalime, Euralarm is also contributing to the JIS action 6, set to improve the collaboration between regulators and the Industry through a roundtable on standards' market relevance, or SMAART. The first SMARRT meeting will be held at the end of February 2017 to discuss the current agenda of the Committee on Standards (link to doc), which is chaired by the EU Commission and brings together representatives of the Member States. Euralarm Members interested in taking part in the meeting should contact Glen Dale.
JIS action 8 aims to provide high-quality standards in a timely manner. This is also an essential concern to Euralarm as delays in producing adequate standards is a multi-billion euro cost to the Industry, as pointed in Euralarm's Market Driven Standardisation briefing paper.
Finally, Euralarm is involved in the JIS action 12, which aims to encourage the greater development and use of European services standards. This is an area of particular interest to Euralarm and the community it represents, and it will also feature pre-eminently in its yearly Symposium to be held in London on May 8th, 2017.
JIS is a very active initiative, with meetings being held regularly. To provide an overview Euralarm will publish on a quarterly basis a new newsletter for the benefit of its Members on JIS and other standardisation policy activities, starting in the first quarter of 2017.