Spain leads global standardization and has a direct impact on the increase in international trade

UNE General Assembly

Spanish experts lead 153 presidencies and secretariats of technical bodies of international and European standardization organizations.

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The Spanish Association for Standardization, A, has held its General Assembly, in which the 2023 Annual Report, which includes the main activities carried out by the Entity last year; and the UNE Normalization Awards 2024. The deputy director general of Quality and Industrial Safety of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, Jose Manuel Prieto, closed the Assembly, which was attended by a hundred representatives of the Spanish economic sectors, public administrations and other relevant entities.

 

The general director of UNE and vice president of ISO, Javier García, has pointed out: “The year 2023 has been characterized by the promotion of internationalization of Spanish leadership in standardization. Spanish experts lead 153 presidencies and secretariats of technical bodies of international and European standardization organizations. Being at the global forefront in standardization is the difference between doing what others dictate or being the ones who determine the content of the standards that influence our businesses.”

 

Leading global standardization has a direct impact on the increase in international trade and the competitiveness of the productive fabric: the standards contribute 1% of GDP to Spanish economic growth, reduce business costs by 7% and improve productivity by 13%. Furthermore, the contribution of standards to the gross profit of companies that apply them represents up to 5% of their annual sales revenue, according to several studies by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Institute of Economic Studies (IEE).

 

During the Assembly, the prominence that the Ministry of Industry and Tourism gave to standardization within the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union during the second half of last year. In the month of October, the Ministry and UNE organized the Conference “Normalization: Strategic instrument for the climate and digital transition”, in which the key role that standards play in achieving these objectives was highlighted. Likewise, the contribution of standardization to achieving two of the priorities of the Spanish Presidency was highlighted: reindustrializing the EU and guaranteeing its open strategic autonomy, as well as advancing the ecological transition.

 

UNE 2025 Strategy

 

2023 marked the second year of implementation of the UNE 2025 Strategy, which is based on three strategic objectives: providing solutions to the challenges facing society, carrying out UNE's digital transformation and being recognized as an exemplary organization. In this sense, the Spanish Standardization Organization made important advances in areas such as the objectives ESG (environmental, social and good governance).

 

Among others, the UNE Compliance Standards on free competition and socio-labor matters have been published; Work began on the future ISO Standard for management systems of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; and UNE worked, with an outstanding contribution, together with more than 60 countries, in the preparation of the first International ISO standard of gender equality and women's empowerment, recently published.

 

New UNE members

 

In 2023, 30 new members will join the UNE association base, made up of more than 500 entities, representing practically the entire Spanish productive and economic fabric. Among them are more than 200 national business sector associations, companies, public administrations, universities and technology centers. The members of UNE are the driving force and pillar of the Spanish standardization system.

 

In the second year of implementation of the UNE 2025 Strategy, the Spanish Standards Organization made important advances through new standards that provide an effective response to the great challenges facing society, such as ESG objectives.

 

Standards and consumers

 

In line with UNE's strategic objective of providing solutions to the challenges faced by society, the Entity launched an information campaign with the Federation of Consumers and Users CECU to raise consumer awareness about the importance of choosing products and services that comply with technical standards. In addition, UNE published its third Annual Report of the Market Surveillance Observatory to promote compliance with technical standards and legislation, and thus avoid the marketing of unsafe products and services, which cause harm to the economy and consumers and represent a unfair competition.

 

Public-private collaboration model

 

UNE is an exemplary model of public-private collaboration. It has 15 current agreements with public administrations that facilitate the implementation of legislation and the development of regulations.

 

UNE 2024 Awards

 

During the General Assembly, the UNE Standardization Awards 2024 were presented, which recognize the commitment and professionalism of the Standardization Committees and the people who make them up. The winners of this edition have been:

 

López Agüí Award for the most outstanding CTN-UNE: CTN-UNE 146 Aggregates, whose secretariat leads the Aggregates Federation.

UNE Award for the most outstanding Presidency of CTN-UNE or SC-UNE: Val Díez, president of the CTN-UNE 194 Gender equality and general director of STANPA.

UNE Award for the most outstanding member of CTN-UNE: Isabel Gonzalo Pascual, from the Division of Agricultural Production Health Laboratories of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (CTN-UNE 331 Diagnostic analysis in animal health).

UNE Award for the Integration of Standardization and Innovation: IRIS Technology Solutions.