Today, services account for 70% of the EU’s GDP. The market share and the employment generated by services is expected to continue to increase, as the emergence of the collaborative economy, digitization and servitisation of the manufacturing industry provide further growth opportunities for the EU service businesses.

Standards - be-they national, European or international - have a role to play in the integration and performance of the market for services. Businesses can use standards as a tool for measuring and improving the quality and performance of the services they are providing or purchasing. Standards are also a means of giving assurance to consumers, who can identify which suppliers are providing a high-quality service. This boosts consumer confidence and facilitates fair competition between service providers on the basis of quality as well as price.

CEN's Strategic Advisory Board on Services (CEN/SAGS) has developed a ‘Strategic Plan on Services standardization’ in recognition of the untapped potential for economic growth of the services market in Europe. The overall aim of the plan is to provide a strong and clear framework to engage further with service stakeholders in view of better understanding their needs.

CEN is launching a special campaign that, for the next two weeks, will highlight existing standards and how they benefit  the European service industry and consumers.

As Javier Garcia Diaz, Chair of SAGS, points out, “CEN is ready to engage with many more service industries and EU associations to better understand how they may benefit from the European standardization. Standards are a business enabler to success!”

Javier Garcia Diaz explains in this video the importance of services standards for European businesses, and engage in the discussion on standards!