European Environmental Citizens Organisation for Standardisation
Organisation Européenne Environnementale Citoyenne de Normalisation

Brussels, June 27, 2003 - The European Environmental Citizens’ Organisation for Standardisation (ECOS) has been recognised as Associate by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). This decision was taken unanimously by all the National Standards Organisations who are members of CEN.

The Associate Status will take effect on 1^st July 2003. It will allow ECOS to represent environmental NGOs in the policy and technical committees of CEN, where they will strive to include environmental concerns in European standards. CEN is responsible for the harmonisation of technical rules across Europe in all industrial sectors (apart from electrotechnics and telecommunications) through the elaboration of consensual and voluntary standards.

"Being granted Associate Status is a big political step", said Dr. Karola Taschner, chair of ECOS. "This shows that ECOS is recognised as a representative of important stakeholders by the European standardisation system. The environmental movement is now present at the heart of standardisation, alongside with the industry, consumers, trade unions, and SMEs."  

"We consider that standards can be a useful tool to promote environmentally sound products and services and to contribute to raising awareness of business on environmental issues, " said Dr. Taschner. "It is now up to the standardisers to demonstrate their openness to environmental concerns by facilitating the introduction of environmental aspects in European standards, and making sure the voice of environmental NGOs is heard during technical discussions".

ECOS is a coalition of four European environmental and seven national NGOs, created to promote the greening of voluntary European Standards. Operational since 1 November 2002, ECOS immediately asked to be given Associate Status within the European Standardisation Organisation CEN, and expressed the wish to be recognised similarly by CENELEC, the counterpart of CEN for electrotechnical standards.

As an Associate, ECOS will take a seat as an observer in the General Assembly of CEN, as well as in the Administrative and Technical Boards. The presence of environmental NGOs in the decision-making bodies might prove particularly important when the establishment of voluntary standards are mandated to CEN to support the implementation of EU environmental policies. The Commission is preparing a Communication on the integration of environmental aspects in standards, where it will underline the role of environmental citizens organisations as key stakeholders in the standardisation process.

ECOS has already contributed, on a case by case basis, to several technical committees of CEN, dealing with standardisation of test methods for air and soil quality, as well as sludge, thermal perfomance of buildings and solid recovered fuels. Being an Associate in CEN will help ECOS to widen its participation to many other standards groups and maximise its potential impact on the content of standards.

ECOS is the 8^th organisation to be granted Associate Status within CEN, after the consumers' organisation ANEC, the Trade Union Technical Bureau (TUTB), the Small and Medium Enterprises organisation NORMAPME and four industry sector federations (Chemicals, Building, Medical Technologies and Machine Tools).

ECOS is the European Environmental Citizens Organisation for Standardisation. Its mission is to promote the integration of environmental aspects in voluntary technical standards published by the European Standards Organisations CEN (European Committee for Standardisation), CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation) and ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Institute).

ECOS Members are :
- the European Environmental Bureau (EEB)
- WWF-European Policy Office
- BirdLife International – European Community Office
- Friends of the Earth Europe
- BUND (Germany)
- Deutscher Naturschutzring (Germany)
- Svenska Naturskyddsföreningen (Germany)
- Danmarks Naturfredningsforening (Germany)
- France Nature Environnement (France)
- Bond Beter Leefmilieu - Vlaanderen (Belgium)
- Inter-Environnement Wallonie (Belgium)

ECOS
Boulevard de Waterloo 34
B-1000 Brussels
Tel. : + 32 2 289 10 93
Fax : + 32 2 289 10 99