CEN and CENELEC, together with EFCA (the European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations), are actively contributing to the work of the European Commission’s High Level Group (HLG) on Business Services, notably by participating in a number of ad-hoc working groups, which held their first meetings in Brussels on 16 May.

In March 2013, the European Commission set up a High Level Group (HLG) on Business Services in order to examine the challenges facing this sector and make policy recommendations to promote innovation and boost productivity.

During its first meeting, in Brussels on 14 March, the HLG decided to create five ad-hoc working groups to focus on specific issues, namely: internationalisation, innovation, internal market, skills and the use of different instruments (including standards) in relation to business services.  While they are discussing these horizontal issues, the ad-hoc working groups will also focus on specific types of business services, including technical and engineering services. The first meetings of these ad-hoc working groups took place in Brussels on 16 May.

Scott Steedman, CEN Vice-President
chaired the meeting of the ad-hoc working group on instruments, which is analysing the use of different instruments (including self-regulation mechanisms, legislative instruments and standards) in order to enhance the performance of business services. "The High Level Group on Business Services will be looking at Standards in the wider context of policy instruments that can influence a business or industry sector, whether Standards or Regulation, acting as a driver in their own right in terms of delivering better products, more efficient processes and higher business potential." – said Mr Steedman.

Claude Breining, CENELEC Vice-President Finance, participated as an expert within the internationalisation working group, which is examining the main policy challenges related to the internationalisation of the business services market. "In the context of a globalised economy, European manufacturing and business service companies face the challenge of increasing competition but also new market opportunities. The role of European and international standards in helping companies to increase their competitiveness and reduce entry barriers to new markets is an essential aspect that we need to address in the HLG." – said Mr Breining.

Jan Van der Putten, Secretary General of EFCA, participated as an expert in the ad-hoc working group on the internal market, which is looking at how to stimulate the cross-border activities of business service companies. After the meeting, Mr Van der Putten said: "In practice, there is not yet a real internal market for business services. In creating a European level playing field for cross-border provision of services, the ad-hoc group identified further standardization of services as one of the drivers to achieve this goal."

CEN (European Committee for Standardization) has developed European standards on business services such as maintenance, facility management and management consultancy.

Recently, CEN published the first European Standards relating to engineering consultancy services. The two standards (EN 16310 and EN 16311) were developed by the Technical Committee CEN/TC 395 'Engineering consultancy services'. These standards set out common definitions of terminology to describe engineering services for the construction of buildings, infrastructure and industrial facilities (EN 16310), as well as engineering services for manufacturing industrial products and equipment (EN 16311).

The publication of these standards was preceded by a feasibility study on the opportunities for standardization in this area, which was carried out by AFNOR (French CEN member) with the support of the European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations (EFCA) and Syntec Ingénierie (France). This study concluded that developing European Standards in the area of engineering consultancy could help to improve quality and safety, prevent misunderstandings between consultants and clients, raise awareness of the added value of the services provided by engineering consultancy firms, and boost the market for these services within Europe.

The HLG is expected to finish its work in the spring of 2014.