Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilDangos y teitl llawn

CHAPTER II U.K. TRANSPARENCY AND STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATION

Article 3 U.K. Transparency of work programmes of standardisation bodies

1. At least once a year, each European standardisation organisation and national standardisation body shall establish its work programme. That work programme shall contain information on the standards and European standardisation deliverables which a European standardisation organisation or national standardisation body intends to prepare or amend, which it is preparing or amending and which it has adopted in the period of the preceding work programme, unless these are identical or equivalent transpositions of international or European standards.

2. The work programme shall indicate, in respect of each standard and European standardisation deliverable:

(a) the subject matter;

(b) the stage attained in the development of the standards and European standardisation deliverables;

(c) the references of any international standards taken as a basis.

3. Each European standardisation organisation and national standardisation body shall make its work programme available on its website or any other publicly available website, as well as make a notice of the existence of the work programme available in a national or, where appropriate, European publication of standardisation activities.

4. No later than at the time of publication of its work programme, each European standardisation organisation and national standardisation body shall notify the existence thereof to the other European standardisation organisations and national standardisation bodies and to the Commission. The Commission shall make that information available to the Member States via the committee referred to in Article 22.

5. National standardisation bodies may not object to a subject for standardisation in their work programme being considered at European level in accordance with the rules laid down by the European standardisation organisations and may not undertake any action which could prejudice a decision in this regard.

6. During the preparation of a harmonised standard or after its approval, national standardisation bodies shall not take any action which could prejudice the harmonisation intended and, in particular, shall not publish in the field in question a new or revised national standard which is not completely in line with an existing harmonised standard. After publication of a new harmonised standard, all conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn within a reasonable deadline.

Article 4 U.K. Transparency of standards

1. Each European standardisation organisation and national standardisation body shall send at least in electronic form any draft national standard, European standard or European standardisation deliverable to other European standardisation organisations, national standardisation bodies or the Commission, upon their request.

2. Each European standardisation organisation and national standardisation body shall within three months reply to, and take due account of, any comments received from any other European standardisation organisation, national standardisation body or the Commission with respect to any draft referred to in paragraph 1.

3. When a national standardisation body receives comments indicating that the draft standard would have a negative impact on the internal market, it shall consult the European standardisation organisations and the Commission before adopting it.

4. National standardisation bodies shall:

(a) ensure access to draft national standards in such a way that all relevant parties in particular those established in other Member States have the opportunity to submit comments;

(b) allow other national standardisation bodies to be involved passively or actively, by sending an observer, in the planned activities.

Article 5 U.K. Stakeholder participation in European standardisation

1. European standardisation organisations shall encourage and facilitate an appropriate representation and effective participation of all relevant stakeholders, including SMEs, consumer organisations and environmental and social stakeholders in their standardisation activities. They shall in particular encourage and facilitate such representation and participation through the European stakeholder organisations receiving Union financing in accordance with this Regulation at the policy development level and at the following stages of the development of European standards or European standardisation deliverables:

(a) the proposal and acceptance of new work items;

(b) the technical discussion on proposals;

(c) the submission of comments on drafts;

(d) the revision of existing European standards or European standardisation deliverables;

(e) the dissemination of information of, and awareness-building about, adopted European standards or European standardisation deliverables.

2. In addition to the collaboration with market surveillance authorities in the Member States, research facilities of the Commission and the European stakeholder organisations receiving Union financing in accordance with this Regulation, European standardisation organisations shall encourage and facilitate appropriate representation, at technical level, of undertakings, research centres, universities and other legal entities, in standardisation activities concerning an emerging area with significant policy or technical innovation implications, if the legal entities concerned participated in a project that is related to that area and that is funded by the Union under a multiannual framework programme for activities in the area of research, innovation and technological development, adopted pursuant to Article 182 TFEU.

Article 6 U.K. Access of SMEs to standards

1. National standardisation bodies shall encourage and facilitate the access of SMEs to standards and standards development processes in order to reach a higher level of participation in the standardisation system, for instance by:

(a) identifying, in their annual work programmes, the standardisation projects, which are of particular interests to SMEs;

(b) giving access to standardisation activities without obliging SMEs to become a member of a national standardisation body;

(c) providing free access or special rates to participate in standardisation activities;

(d) providing free access to draft standards;

(e) making available free of charge on their website abstracts of standards;

(f) applying special rates for the provision of standards or providing bundles of standards at a reduced price.

2. National standardisation bodies shall exchange best practices aiming to enhance the participation of SMEs in standardisation activities and to increase and facilitate the use of standards by SMEs.

3. National standardisation bodies shall send annual reports to the European standardisation organisations with regards to their activities in paragraphs 1 and 2 and all other measures to improve conditions for SMEs to use standards and to participate in the standards development process. The national standardisation bodies shall publish those reports on their websites.

Article 7 U.K. Participation of public authorities in European standardisation

Member States shall, where appropriate, encourage participation of public authorities, including market surveillance authorities, in national standardisation activities aimed at the development or revision of standards requested by the Commission in accordance with Article 10.