SME Representation - European DIGITAL SME Alliance

SME Representation

DIGITAL SME upholds small and medium enterprises’ interests in various standardisation bodies, as well as in European Commission expert groups and other stakeholder organisations.

The Experts

Our ICT standardisation SME experts are directly involved in standards-making, through their active work in different technical committees.

Policy & SME Representation work

The European DIGITAL SME Alliance secretariat is also actively involved in several standardisation policy work streams or bodies, representing the voices of SMEs in ICT standardisation.

Small Business Standards

Small Business Standards (SBS) is the Annex III organisation mandated to represent European small and medium enterprises in the standardisation ecosystem, under Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012. Beyond its representation work, it aims at raising the awareness of SMEs about the benefits of standards and encourages them to get better involved in the standardisation process.

As a founding member of SBS, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance is responsible for its ICT sectoral approach.

SBS website Regulation No 1025/2012

High-Level Forum on European Standardisation

Since January 2023, DIGITAL SME is a member of the European Commission-led High-Level Forum on European Standardisation. Part of the 2022 EU Strategy on Standardisation, the purpose of the Forum is to identify standardisation priorities in support of EU policies and legislation, and discuss horizontal issues such as international leadership, education and skills, as well as pre-normative challenges. The exercise is undertaken in a multi-stakeholder setting, involving European Commission services, European Member State representatives, as well as industry and civil society representatives.

DIGITAL SME actively participates in different of the Forum’s policy workstreams, with an overall aim towards enhanced cooperation between all stakeholders for the benefit of SMEs across Europe. Better alignment is crucial for the better use and uptake of standards for fruitful government policies, which can then further be leveraged and coordinated at international level. In November 2023, DIGITAL SME also signed the High-Level Forum Pledge on Standards Education, committing to a set of initiatives promoting the uptake of standardisation work by future generations.

DIGITAL SME ROLE EU PLEDGE ON STANDARDS EDUCATION

Multi-Stakeholder Platform on
ICT Standardisation I Task Force Rolling Plan

The European Multi-Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation is an advisory expert group on all matters related to European ICT Standardisation. It tackles future ICT standardisation requirements that could be made in support of European laws, regulations, and public procurement, and generally enables the fruitful collaboration between organisations that set ICT standards. It is composed of representatives of national authorities from EU Member States & EFTA countries, European and international ICT standardisation bodies, and stakeholder organisations that represent industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and consumers. The Multi-Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation also comprises a subgroup, the Task Force Rolling Plan, which provides an annual overview of the standardisation needs in the ICT domain in support of EU policy activities.

The European DIGITAL SME Alliance has actively been involved in these two circles in the last years, on behalf of Small Business Standards (SBS) as responsible for the implementation of its ICT sectoral approach.

MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PLATFORM ROLLING PLAN

European Telecommunications Standards Institute

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is a recognised European Standards Organisation (ESO), mandated to deal with telecommunications, broadcasting, and other electronic communications networks and services.

On 29 November 2022, Massimo Vanetti - DIGITAL SME expert and Chair of its Working Group Standards - was re-elected Vice Chair of ETSI’s General Assembly until 31 December 2024. The European DIGITAL SME Alliance’s Innovation Director, Justina Bieliauskaite, is also an ETSI Board member. Collectively, they drive forward inclusiveness reforms in ETSI’s managing bodies.

Parallelly to this representation work, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance is also directly involved as project leaders in ETSI’s STF628 – a standardisation task force designed to create common grounds and make digital twins interoperable.

ETSI WEBSITE WORKING GROUP STANDARDS

Radio Equipment Directive Expert Group (RED EG)

Passed in 2014, the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) establishes a regulatory framework for placing radio equipment on the market in the EU. By establishing fundamental standards for safety and health, electromagnetic compatibility, and the effective use of radio spectrum, it enables a single market for radio equipment. It also serves as the foundation for supplementary regulations covering various other aspects. These include technical safeguards against fraud and the infringement of one's privacy and personal information. Interoperability, access to emergency services, and compliance with the mix of radio hardware and software are further considerations.

The European DIGITAL SME Alliance is a member of the RED Expert Group (EG RE) since 2021. The EG RE is a European Commission-led stakeholder group tasked with enabling the implementation of the directive. In it, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance’s central focus is to enable digital SMEs to create a horizontal market which is independent, avoiding lock-in thanks to a disaggregation of hardware and software.

RADIO EQUIPMENT DIRECTIVE RED EXPERT GROUP

CEN-CENELEC Joint Technical Committee 21
on Artificial Intelligence

CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) and CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation) are two of the three European Standards Organisations (ESOs) mandated by the European Union to deliver harmonised standards. In May 2023, they were both jointly tasked to deliver on the European Commission’s standardisation request for the European Union’s upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act. CEN-CENELEC’s Joint Technical Committee 21 is assigned to this work.

In July 2023, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance was admitted in the committee as liaison organisation. With its presence there, it supports the work of its already engaged experts, and further promotes SME-inclusive artificial intelligence standards under development.

CEN-CENELEC WEBSITE JOINT TECHNICAL COMMITTEE 21

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DIGITAL SME upholds small and medium enterprises’ interests in various standardisation bodies, as well as in European Commission expert groups and other stakeholder organisations.

The Experts

George Sharkov

Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence (ETSI TC CYBER ; ETSI TC SAI)

Isabella De Michelis

User-system interfaces (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC35 WG4)

Fabio Guasconi

Cybersecurity (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC27 WG1 ; CEN JTC13 WG5)

Emilia Tantar

Artificial Intelligence (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC42 ; CEN/CENELEC JTC21 WG2)

Fabio Massimo

ICT Skills (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 ; CEN TC428)

Sebastiano Bertani

Reconfigurable Radio Systems (ETSI TC RRS ; CEN-CENELEC JTC13 WG8)

Belen Suarez

Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (ISO TC307 WG5 ; CEN-CENELEC JTC19 WG2 ; ISO TC207 SC1 ; ISO TC279 WG1 & WG3)

Andrea Caccia

Cybersecurity & Blockchain (ETSI TC ESI ; CEN TC224 ; CEN-CENELEC JTC19)

Davide Giribaldi

Cybersecurity (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC27 WG5)

Massimo Vanetti

Internet of Things (ETSI oneM2M)

Petko Karamotchev

Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (ISO TC307 WG6)

Georgi Babinov

Smart Cities/Communities (ISO/IEC JTC1 WG 11 Smart Cities ; ETSI TC ATTM WG AT2 & WG SDMC)

David Blampain

Cybersecurity (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC27 WG4)

Kevin Carta

Biometrics (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC37 WG3 & WG5 ; CEN-CENELEC/TC 224 WG18)

Emilio Posca

Environmental engineering (ETSI TC EE)

Policy & SME Representation work

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