About

About Meeting Standards

Meeting standards aims to raise awareness among European SMEs and SME organisations about the importance of standardisation and getting involved in the standards writing process. Moreover, the aim is to inform SMEs about the latest developments in standardisation that may be of relevance to them.

The campaign will consist of different types of activities organised by standards and SME organisations across Europe.

The campaign takes place once a year and lasts one week.

Meeting Standards aims to:

  • Awareness & engagement

Raise awareness of importance of standardisation among SMEs & get them involved

  • Knowledge sharing

Inform SMEs about the latest developments in standardisation of relevance to them

  • Build a community

The campaign to become THE European SME and standards yearly event

About Standards

Standards have many functions and cover an astonishing range of goods and services from lifts to cosmetics, from quality management to cybersecurity, and from tattoo hygiene to water management. They define the safety of objects we use every day and make life easier in a thousand ways. In this ever-evolving world, new standards are required and developed every year. And older standards are constantly revised or updated to ensure they are keeping pace with technological, societal and regulatory changes.
Standards provide businesses with numerous advantages.
Standards allow…
  • Consistent quality, which earns loyalty from customers and attracts new buyers;
  • Goods or services to move freely throughout the EEA;
  • Costs reduction by minimising errors and reducing time to market;
  • Compatibility and interoperability of products and processes;
  • Compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements;
  • Enhanced trade by opening new market areas and facilitating market access;
  • Access to the latest information and knowledge about new technologies, best practices and innovation.

Yet SMEs do not have a strong enough voice in ensuring that their needs are taken into account in the standards writing process. This is important as the final standard might therefore place unnecessary or inappropriate requirements on SMEs.

SMEs are facing some challenges when it comes to standards, namely:

  • Lack of awareness
  • Lack of resources & knowledge to participate
  • Technical complexity
  • Finding the right standard
  • Lack of support for implementation
Read more about Standards

About Small Business Standards

Small Business Standards (SBS) is a European non-profit association co-financed by the European Union and EFTA Member States.

SBS was established in 2013 to make the standardisation system as inclusive, transparent and open as possible in line with Regulation 1025/2012 of the European Standardisation System.

Its mission is to:

  • Represent the interests of SMEs in the standardisation process
  • Raise their awareness about standardisation and facilitating their uptake of standards
  • Motivate them to engage in the standardisation process

The association represents the interests of 12 million SMEs through 22 SME member organisations.

SBS has some 70 qualified experts covering key industry sectors. These experts, annually appointed through an open call, represent European SMEs in more than 220 Technical Committees, Subcommittees and Working Groups at the European (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI) and international levels (ISO and IEC). These committees cover areas such as cosmetics, personal protective equipment, electric bikes, construction works and products, digital technologies, advanced manufacturing, radio equipment or circular economy. 

Visit SBS’ website to find out more about its work and activities.

Read more about SBS

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