On 11 and 12 September 2008, 160 experts from 22 countries met in Cracow at the 3rd European Conference on standardization, testing and certification to discuss the subject of “Safer products for competitive workplaces“. Like the two preceding events, in Dresden (2001) and Paris (2005), this conference was organized by EUROSHNET.

CEN standardization and CE certification have proved exceptionally useful and have substantially raised the safety level of products distributed in the EU. Scope nevertheless exists for progress in order for the system to be improved further and the safety level of products bearing the CE mark to be maintained.

The 40 EUROSHNET experts who met in Cracow on 10 September 2008 to pool their experience were in accord: the system is well-engineered, and with over 100 OSH institutions and some 300 hits per day, constitutes an excellent basis for the uncomplicated exchange of information and effective collaboration in the sphere of occupational safety and health. The experts were however of the opinion that EUROSHNET must be used more systematically, and the support of more experts enlisted.

Dr Joachim Lambert has been Head of the Secretariat of the Commission for OH&S and Standardization (KAN) since January 2000. He was particularly committed to strengthening Europe-wide co-operation between OSH groups within standardization. Prior to his retirement on 30 November 2008, he shared in an interview some of the impressions he had gained over the past years.

A DIN standards committee may not take any decision which is inconsistent with the block vote of a party with an essential interest in standardization. In order for such a veto to function, the stakeholder group to which an individual expert on a committee belongs must be clear. To bring the corresponding classifications up to date, the DIN standards committees are currently focusing on identifying the stakeholder groups represented within them and assigning their experts to their respective groups.

World Standards Day was marked on 21 October 2008 by a European conference in Paris under the heading “Standardisation and SMEs“. The event, which was broadcast live on the Internet, was devoted to the political strategies and specific measures by which the development and application of standards could be made easier for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).