Home > The news of EUROGIP and occupational risks in Europe >
France appears among the leaders in standardization on the European and global levels, according to the 2015 International Standardization Barometer.
All the ISO members except the United Kingdom chose the criterion of the number of Technical Committee secretariats as the main criterion for measuring their weight in ISO (International Organization for Standardization). At the end of 2014, France maintained its position among the five most influential countries in ISO. It held 10% of chairman’s positions and 10% of the secretariats of ISO Technical Committees, Sub-Committees and Working Groups, and took part in 80% of them. In the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), France’s position remains stable, second behind Germany and ahead of the United States. However, the increased responsibility taken on by China and Japan has reduced the global weight of the Europeans, except Germany.
On the European level, Germany and France hold more than one out of two secretariats of technical committees of the CEN (European Committee for Standardization). Germany ranks first with 30% and France second with 22%. In the CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization), 16% of the technical committees and other groups in charge of producing standards were led by France, which ranks it third behind Germany and the United Kingdom.
Note that, in 2014, France was involved mainly at the level of working groups, the level of responsibility where standards are produced. The United Kingdom, for its part, has in recent years preferred to become more involved in technical work, and focuses on the secretariats of Technical Committees with significant media and commercial repercussions.
For the occupational safety and health sector (OSH), the level of French international responsibilities is 11%, a level close to the average global level for all subjects. On the European level, however, it is 14%, which represents a participation below the average global French level of 20%.
