Formation on CEN-CENELEC Guide 17
On the 9th of December 2025, the BEC had the pleasure of hosting Small Business Standards to give training on CEN-CENELEC Guide 17 ‘Guidance for writing standards taking into account micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) needs’.
As part of the training, the speaker, M. Frédéric Dufour, provided the BEC and its experts with several examples of how standards can be written without considering the applicability for SMEs. Noting that this may severely hamper SMEs, who typically benefit from the use of standards for several reasons including, but not limited to, the application of requirements stemming from a vetted industrial consensus, as well as the added benefit of having a presumption of conformity with Union Harmonization Legislation when following harmonized standards, the BEC acknowledged the need for more awareness on this subject.
As such, after providing a brief overview of the activities of SBS in their quest to support SMEs in their standardization endeavors, M. Dufour and the standardization experts engaged in a more holistic discussion on how the topic of SME-friendly standards could be introduced in several stages of the standards development process. In addition, the discussions involved tackling the issue beyond the standardization framework, by for example organizing relevant info sessions and reaching out to regulatory bodies to seek further support and advice.
To conclude, SBS and the standardization experts agreed that the topic should be the subject of a follow-up sometime early 2026.