Bundeskammer der ZiviltechnikerInnen
BKZT
Die BKZT und ihre grundlegenden Aufgaben sind im Bundesgesetz über Ziviltechniker (Ziviltechnikergesetz 2019 – ZTG 2019) bundesgesetzlich geregelt.
ID: 008959438620-28
Lobbying Activity
Response to Standardisation Strategy
6 Aug 2021
Statement of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Architects and Chartered Engineering Consultants - http://www.arching.at
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The European Standardization system is certainly an important pillar of a strong single market and the global competitiveness of the EU member states. Therefore, it is essential that it is used in the best possible way.
Request 1:
A refocusing of content and scope of standardization is necessary: The focus needs to be kept on the itemisation of all kinds of scientific and technical procedures, methods, materials etc. There must be tools to define and impede approaches going beyond the permissible scope and content of standardization.
In order to support European strategic interests and comply with European values at the same time, it is extremely important to respect the distribution of competences between the democratically legitimized legislative system and the system of standardization. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully redefine the necessary and sensible scope and contents of standardization and to impede approaches going beyond that.
Nevertheless, the development of the recent years show that standardization tends to go far beyond these limits and thus to contradict the rule of law, the democratic principle and the subsidiarity principle, which can lead to circumventions of democratically legitimate (national) legislation “through the backdoor”. Also, the voluntary nature of standards is not helpful, because it is well known that even though this is the case in theory, not complying with them can lead to severe liability problems when it comes to court procedures. It is still very difficult to prove to the court that “alternative solutions” are equivalent.
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Request 2:
In order to enhance (and not to hinder!) innovation, the principle of the voluntariness of a standard – where applicable – needs to be emphasised: It must become easier to prove the technical/scientific equivalence of alternative solutions
Innovation in all (technical and scientific) fields and branches of expertise requires the possibility to fulfil state of the art requirements not only by following a standard (that – as mentioned in the roadmap – is often very quickly outdated due to the rapid technological development anyway) but also by “equivalent alternative solutions”.
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Request 3:
More direct financial support for the participation of SME / independent experts in the standardization process.
Decisions taken by standardization committees often have an enormous impact on our society and/or on different economic sectors and therefore require a very well-balanced participation that prevents outcomes based on individual economic interests.
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