20. Urges the Commission to develop and implement, in cooperation with the ESOs, an improved and coherent system for coordinating standardisation policy and activities, which should cover all aspects of the standardisation process, from the preparation and delivery of mandates, through the monitoring of technical committee work, ensuring that the standards produced are consistent with EU policies and meet the essential requirements of the respective legislation, to the formal adoption, publication and use of the standards; emphasises the role that relevant stakeholder categories could play as an advisory group assisting the Commission in developing a harmonised European standardisation policy ...[+++] platform;

2. Calls on the Commission to include the existing obligation to follow the principles of the World Trade Organisation’s agreement on technical barriers to trade (transparency, openness, impartiality, consensus, efficiency, relevance and consistency) in the legal framework of European standardisation, particularly in Directive 98/34/EC or its successor, as this would help the establishment of, enforcement of, compliance with and supervision of standards; encourages the Commission to promote the principle of balanced representation and accountability in the European Standardisation System; recalls the importance of intellectual property rights, which must be an integral part of the future ...[+++]yellow3>European standardisation policy;

1. European standardisation bodies shall ensure an appropriate representation of small and medium-sized enterprises (hereinafter 'SME'), consumer organisations and environmental and social stakeholders, in particular through the organisations referred to in Annex III, at the policy development level and at least at the following stages of the development of European standards or European standardisation deliverables:

The Commission has accepted this invitation, analysed the current situation and identified the key areas where the European standardisation system and the instruments available to European standardisation policy can and should be further improved.

13. Stresses the importance of clarifying the roles of the various actors, while arrangements for cooperation should remain at the discretion of the various groups concerned; emphasises that greater consideration must be given to environmental aspects when CEN and ISO standards are set and supports the continuation of the EHD (Environmental Held Desk) project at European level; emphasises that the incorporation of environmental concerns into European standardisation is an important element of an integrated product ...[+++]policy; strongly urges the Commission to ensure that all parties are properly represented in the standardisation process, including representatives of environmental and consumer organisations; encourages the Commission to present as soon as possible a proposal for a revision of the New Approach which ensures that environmental concerns are genuinely incorporated into standardisation, and which clarifies the nature of decisions of environmental policy, which could be addressed via standardisation, and which decisions should be left to the regulator to deal with in transparent democratic processes;

Current European standardisation policy only takes into account standards established by European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs).