How to make standards and legislation meet the needs of all consumers? Chiara Giovannini, ANEC Senior Manager, Policy & Innovation 31 March 2014, Paris, France 1 Raising Standards for Consumers March 2014
Content • ANEC in a nutshell (Vision & Mission, membership, priorities) • Why are standards important for eAccessibility? Are they linked to legislation? • What is the recipe for success? 2 Raising Standards for Consumers March 2014
ANEC The European consumer voice in standardisation But what does the acronym really mean? 3 Raising Standards for Consumers March 2014
ANEC « Association européenne pour la coordination de la représentation des consommateurs pour la normalisation » (ANEC Statutes 2006) 4 Raising Standards for Consumers March 2014
EU Internal Market Many goods and services in Europe fall under Internal Market regulations Example: Legislator defines basic safety requirements in Directives («New Approach ») Technical solutions are left to the European standards bodies Voluntary standards complement European legislation Raising Standards for Consumers 5 March 2014
The Problem Standardisation is a private activity, unlike legislation, and European standardisation is based on national delegations Yes, participation of all national stakeholders is encouraged in the development of European Standards . . . but business has most to gain from influencing the content of standards and has the knowledge and resources to participate Moreover, national consumer expertise in standardisation is fragmented in many countries or simply does not exist 6 March 2014 Raising Standards for Consumers
So consumer participation... has been centralised at the European level since 1995 ‘The European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation’ (or ‘The European consumer voice in standardisation’) 7 March 2014 Raising Standards for Consumers
ANEC facts & figures • ANEC is an independent, private and not-for-profit association (AISBL) established under Belgian Law • ANEC relies on funding from the EU (95%) and EFTA (5%) through annual grants (“Annex III Organisation” Standardisation Regulation) in order to: -employ a central secretariat in Brussels -reimburses some 200 volunteer experts from across Europe -funds an ANEC R&T programme of 50.000 € • Eight areas of priority agreed by the ANEC/GA: - Child Safety - Information Society - Design for All - Innovation (Smart Meters) - Domestic Appliances - Services - Sustainability - Traffic Raising Standards for Consumers 8 March 2014
Mission ANEC promotes, defends and represents the European consumer interest in: • the development of standards (policy and technical) • the use of standards (conformity assessment) • the development of laws related to standards or use of standards 9 Raising Standards for Consumers March 2014
Scope Safety, performance, quality, accessibility and environmental aspects of products and services 10 Raising Standards for Consumers 2012
ANEC structure General Assembly (ANEC/GA) (one individual from each of 33 countries EU+EFTA+Accession) Steering Committee (ANEC/SC) (up to 10 members from GA) Secretariat (11 staff) Working Groups (ANEC/WGs or PTs) (8 WGs comprising experts drawn from member countries) Raising Standards for Consumers 11 March 2014
ANEC Memberships • Partner Organisation of • Partner Organisation of • Full member of • Past member of • Observer in ISO/COPOLCO • Member of many EC expert groups Raising Standards for Consumers 12 March 2014
Main ANEC Partners The mainstream European consumers organisation - especially in helping to shape European legislation and public policies in the consumer interest Consumers International - especially in ensuring the participation of consumer experts in international standardisation (ISO, IEC, UNECE) EDF (European Disability Forum) - especially in helping to shape European legislation and public policies on accessibility ECOS (Environmental Citizens Organisation for Standardisation) - Collaboration on environmental standards Raising Standards for Consumers 13 March 2014
DfA standards ANEC thinks that standards are a suitable tool to make products and services accessible for as many consumers as possible, irrespective of their age and abilities 15 Raising Standards for Consumers March 2014
The ANEC DfA WG Austrian Standards Institute, AGE Platform Europe, Disabled Peoples Organisations Denmark, Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities, Special Sizes A and O Ltd, European Blind Union, AFNOR, Association Leo Lagrange pour la Défense des Consommateurs, DIN Verbraucherrat, e-ISOTIS, University of the Aegean, Dept. of Product and Systems Design Engineering, Arvekni Heilsuverndarstöð Reykjavíkur, Resource and Rehabilitation centre for the blind, National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI), O’Herlihy Access Consultancy, Italian Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted/EDF, EFHOH (European Federation of Hard of Hearing People), Viziris, Food & Consumer Product Safety Authority NL, ONCE-CIDAT, Swedish Consumers’ Association, Ricability UK, Age Research Centre at Coventry University, BSI CPIN (Consumer & Public Involvement Network), Consumers International, Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Loughborough University, Inclusive Design Research Associates Limited (INDRA), The School of Computing Science, Middlesex University, Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted . Raising Standards for Consumers 15 March 2014
Some more facts and figures 60.000+ experts from business 75 experts in CEN committees on behalf of consumers March 2014 Raising Standards for Consumers 16
Public procurement Public procurement – 16.3% of EU GDP Purchasing best value for tax-payers money Value may include also social and environmental considerations Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC (revised with mandatory accessibility requirements!) Raising Standards for Consumers 17 March 2014
Web Accessibility Directive EC Proposal on 3 December 2012 Most effective way to deliver web accessibility is through an EU binding horizontal legislative act, underpinned by standards Mandatory accessibility for public sector online services EP approval on 26 February 2014, awaiting Council discussions ANEC – involvement since 2007, ‘Access Denied’ campaign Raising Standards for Consumers 18 March 2014
Mandate 376 “Accessibility requirements for ICT to be used in public procurement” Phase 1: - Report with inventory of standards - Report on conformity assessment Phase 2: - Accessibility standard for ICT - Testing methods - Conformity assessment method - Conformance template for declaration - Toolkit Raising Standards for Consumers 19 March 2014
Mandate 376 EN 301 549 'Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe' TR 101 550 'Documents relevant to EN 301 549 Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe’ TR 101 551 ‘Guidelines on the use of accessibility award criteria suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe’ TR 101 552 ‘Guidance for the application of conformity assessment to accessibility requirements for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe’ On-line toolkit for public procurers Raising Standards for Consumers 20 March 2014
EN 301 549 • EN 301549 - approved to go for Formal Vote, started in December (2 months), final publication February/March 2014 • Freely available: http://www.etsi.org • produced by ETSI Technical Committee Human Factors (HF), and the eAccessibility Joint Working Group (JWG) of CEN/CENELEC/ETSI • Date of withdrawal of any conflicting National Standard (dow): 31 October 2014 Raising Standards for Consumers 21 March 2014
EN 301 549 Objective: to set out in a single source, detailed, practical and quantifiable functional accessibility requirements that take note of global initiatives in that field and which are applicable to all Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products and services usable in public procurement. To be used for conformity assessment: objective, concise and accurate test methods that are intended to produce unambiguous, repeatable and reproducible results. Raising Standards for Consumers 22 March 2014
EN 301 549 Scope: functional accessibility requirements applicable to ICT products and services, together with a description of the test procedures and evaluation methodology for each accessibility requirement in a form that is suitable for use in public procurement within Europe but also in the private sector. To help public procurers to identify the requirements for their purchases, and manufacturers to design products Basis for an accessible ICT procurement toolkit as public bodies do not have a specialist knowledge related to accessibility Raising Standards for Consumers 23 March 2014
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