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CEN and CENELEC support for SMEs during SME week SME Week is an opportunity for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to learn how standards can help their business.

Date

06 May 2009

Sections

Innovation & Enterprise

Brussels (6 May 2009) – The first in a series, the SME Week is part of a Europe-wide campaign to promote entrepreneurship, and to inform entrepreneurs about support available for them at European, national, and local levels. It provides an opportunity for SMEs to access an array of information, advice, support and ideas to help them develop their activities. The SME week takes place from 6 to 14 May 2009, held as part of the Czech Presidency of the European Union. To kick off this important week, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), are supporting a conference entitled ‘Better access of SMEs to Standardization’, organized by The Czech Chamber of Commerce, with the kind support of the European Commission, NORMAPME (European Office of Crafts, Trades and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises for Standardization) and UNMZ (Czech Office for Standards, Metrology and Testing). The conference takes place in Prague today (6 May). During this conference, SMEST (Small and Medium sized Standards Toolkit) will be introduced. It is one of several initiatives CEN and CENELEC have underway to assist SMEs.
Summer and autumn 2009 will see SMEST presented at eleven workshops in those countries that recently joined the EU. For more information about SMEST and the dates of these workshops, see www.smest.eu To provide a framework to address the concerns some SMEs have with access to standards, CEN and CENELEC have an initiative entitled CEN-CENELEC SME Access to Standardization Project, led by BSI (the National Standards Body of the UK). The objective of this project is to recommend practical actions to SMEs, in order to improve the value of standardization to SMEs and reduce the financial impact.
CEN and CENELEC recently published a Guide to encourage SMEs to join the standardization process. It explains the ways standards and standardization can help cut costs, attract new customers and improve efficiency as well as encourage SMEs to join the standardization process. Further information is available at www.cen.eu/go/sme_guide and www.cenelec.eu.

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ABOUT CEN The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) is a business facilitator in Europe, removing trade barriers for European industry and consumers. Its mission is to foster the European economy in global trading, the welfare of European citizens, and the environment. Through its services it provides a platform for the development of European Standards and other technical specifications. CEN’s 30 National Members work together to develop voluntary European Standards (ENs) in various sectors to build a European Internal Market for goods and services and to position Europe in the global economy. By supporting research, and helping disseminate innovation, standards are a powerful tool for economic growth. More than 60.000 technical experts as well as business federations, consumer and other societal interest organizations are involved in the CEN network that reaches over 480 million people.
For further information please visit: www.cen.eu ABOUT CENELEC The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization is officially responsible for standardization in the electrotechnical field. In an ever more global economy, CENELEC fosters innovation and competitiveness, making technology available not only to major businesses but also to SMEs through the production of voluntary standards. CENELEC creates market access at the European level but also at the international level through its cooperation agreement with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Through the work of its 30 Members together with its experts, the industry federations and consumers, Electrotechnical European Standards are created in order to help shape the European Internal Market, to encourage technological development, to ensure interoperability and to guarantee the safety and health of consumers and provide environmental protection.
Detailed information available at www.cenelec.eu Media contacts:
CEN Ryan Millar Communications : +32.2.55.00.833 :ryan.millar@cen.eu
CENELEC Elisabeth Brodthagen Communication Manager : +32.2.519.68.90 :communication@cenelec.eu