The European Standardization System: How Much in Need of Reform Is It?

Bernd Woeckene
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Bernd Woeckene: Department of Economics, universitõt T³bingen, T³bingen, Germany

Homo Oeconomicus, 1997, vol. 14, 391-410

Abstract: Although the European Standardization System (ESS) is since the eighties in a process of permanent restructuring, its critics do not fall silent. The main objections to the ESS are that the standards development is too slow, that the realized degree of standardization is too low, that often under-standardization hinders the opening up of markets, and that the regulative standards which are developed of the community legislation lack democratic legitimacy. In view of these supposed shortcomings, the Commission of the European Communities recommends a fundamental reform of the ESS that aims at a general replacement of the parties concerned. Obviously, this would lead to a considerable centralization. The main point of the paper is that this proposal goes too far, because all actual shortcomings can be remedied by a greater participation of users, consumers, and workers and a strengthening of governing bodies of the ESS without questioning the decentralized structure of the ESS per se.

Date: 1997
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