Joint Letter from the European Rail Sector
The European Commission’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy stresses the role of the rail transport sector as the most sustainable mode of transport in tackling the climate emergency. The Commission in its Industrial Strategy for Europe also recognises the strategic importance of strengthening Europe’s ability to forge global high-quality standards which bear the hallmark of Europe’s values and principles.
During the last few years, we have seen an increasing strategic importance of standardisation activities at the international (ISO/IEC) level, as well as of standardisation activities outside the traditional railway domain, notably in the field of digitalisation. European and international standardisation are clearly of crucial importance to the rail sector and well-functioning standardisation systems are essential for maintaining the EU’s global leadership and competitiveness.
The supporting organisations have reflected on the specific strategic challenges connected to international standardisation in their field and on how to address them.
The result of this exercise is outlined in the attached Vision Paper, shared in a common letter with the Commission DG MOVE, which presents the European perspective on international standardisation in the railway field from a sector perspective and expresses several recommendations aiming at, in a nutshell, improving the effectiveness of European Standardisation for a greater impact at the international level.