Services Standards: Defining the Core Consumer Elements ... - ANEC

Hans-W. Micklitz
approach. The national organisations will insist on their independence to
develop standards, if they feel that there is a need. This might lead to
duplication of work which needs to be avoided at European level. Coordination
is a smooth word here for delegating standard-making away from the national
organisations to the European organisation – CEN. It is much easier for the
European Commission to cooperate with CEN via the system of mandates.
However, the number of mandates is dependent on the available resources.
Mandates quite necessarily require an economic engagement of the European
Commission. CEN constantly reiterates its plea that progress in standardmaking
depends on available resources.
There is not very much consumer rhetoric in the analysed documents. In early
2006, consumer services appear for the first time as a separate category in
CEN’s working programme. If any, consumers are seen as the beneficiaries of
standards, but not as direct addressees. There is one notable exception in
CEN’s final report to Mandate M/340, ANEC’s quest for standards in the field of
winter sports. However, there is no consumer policy, despite the Council
Resolution on consumer safety and despite the consumer protection rhetoric
which governs the area of standardisation of services. If any, consumer issues
emerge on an ad hoc basis. The four proposed consumer services related
projects have been proposed by AFNOR and NEN, three of them concern the
elderly, and one is attributed to tourism and transport. This does not mean that
ANEC is not consulted or not involved in the policy-making. Indeed ANEC has
been entitled to propose topics for standardisation. ANEC may propose new
standards topics either directly to CEN or via lobbying for a mandate from the
Commission to CEN (both have been successfully done in the ANEC Child
Safety field in the past). Also, ANEC is entitled to use the same appeals
procedure as other CEN associates and full members. The problem is that if no
organisation of the new Working Group or Technical Committee is found from
amongst the CEN members, the proposals may fail for lack of
financing/organisation. Understandably, ANEC does not have the resources to
take on the organisation of a Technical Committee itself.
a) Impact on standardisation of services
Seen from a consumer policy point of view, the true problem of standardisation
of services seems to be that ANEC has no status which would allow it to claim
the development of a certain policy or certain standards in various fields and – if
the request is not met – to set a mechanism into motion which allows to fully
consider the arguments brought forward by consumer organisations in an
independent forum.
78