Harmonized standards consultants (HAS consultants) have the task of assessing whether the standards developed by CEN, CENELEC and ETSI satisfy the requirements laid down by the European Commission in its standardization mandates. For some years, the Commission has tasked a company with managing the budget for the consultants' work and appointing consultants to the roles. The contract governing this arrangement expired at the end of March 2022.
The new contract between the European Commission and the new service provider is expected to be awarded in mid-2022. It includes a 55% increase in the budget for the consultants' work, and changes to the specifications for their procedures. Among the points affected are the following:
- Should the HAS consultant submit a negative evaluation result before the formal voting stage, the responsible Technical Committee at CEN, CENELEC or ETSI can respond swiftly, amend the standard and request re-evaluation either before or after the formal vote.
- In the future, HAS consultants may choose from three different evaluation results: that a standard satisfies the requirements of the standardization mandate (compliant), fails to satisfy them (lack of compliance), or satisfies them only subject to certain conditions (conditional compliance).
- HAS consultants are permitted to spend slightly more time on communication with the European standards bodies (at least 75% of their working time for standards assessments, up to 25% for communication and attending meetings).
Recording and presentation of a CEN/CENELEC webinar on the new HAS consultant system
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