New membership categories pave the way for the UK to continue to engage with CEN/CENELEC through BSI

28 Jul 2021

Yvonne Pearman, Standards Project Manager at BFPA reports “The attached BSI notice advises that an agreement to revise membership arrangements in their Statutes, reflecting the UK’s departure from the EU was reached early in June 2021.”

Under CEN/CENELEC membership, the General Assemblies agreed to create three categories of full membership in each of the two Associations:

  • One for States that are members of the European Economic Area
  • One for States that are members of EFTA but not EEA or are accession countries
  • One for States, such as the UK, that have an agreement with the EU and can demonstrate either convergent or compatible market regulation in relevant areas

This decision safeguards the principle of international standards providing seamless market access across the UK and 33 European countries, reinforces the role of the European regional standardisation system as part of the international standards system and strengthens the international co-operation underpinning the goals of the CEN and CENELEC strategy 2030. The new categories of membership provide confidence for UK stakeholders participating in the shaping of European standards, a crucial part of UK influence in the international standards landscape. It also provides stability for business and industry to trade in a settled system compatible with the UK’s global trading ambitions and strong foundation for the projection of the UK policy and business interests globally.

The new membership provisions in the Statutes and Internal Regulations will maintain the way the UK expert stakeholders from all communities engage with CEN and CENELEC through BSI, retaining all the rights of participation, leadership and voting in standards developing committees as now. An assessment against the new category will be undertaken in third quarter of 2021. The results of the assessment will be used by the General Assemblies to confirm BSI’s status against the criteria for the new membership category in November. BSI will then transfer to the new category of full membership from 1 January 2022.

To download the official BSI notice click here

For any questions on BFPA’s involvement with BSI or CEN/CENELEC please contact Yvonne Pearman at yvonne@bfpa.co.uk

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