‘The European standardisation regimes are dangerous and inefficient’. Discuss

... 'The European standardisation regimes are dangerous and inefficient'. Discuss To involve oneself in a thorough discussion of European standardisation one has to allow an escape into a brief history of the system which has insofar taken two separate forms with distinctly separate aims. The Europeanisation of standards has been used as a means to different ends: the first as a means to remove the obstacles to trade represented by divergent national standards, and the second as a way of relieving political decision-making from technical and cumbersome detail. This essay requires a qualitative evaluation of the regime as it stands, but for this to be achieved one may have to explore the reasons behind its initial and much-publicised failure and consequent 1992 're-packaging' requirement. Standardisation is now established as a legitimate alternative to Community legislation1 suggesting already that it secured its raison d'etre as a mere accessory instrument

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