Towards a More Holistic Legitimacy Approach to Technical Standardisation in the EU

Abstract

This contribution focuses on what still seems to be a blind spot in the legal and scholarly approach to technical standardisation, to demonstrate the importance of ensuring not only the input and output legitimacy of the European standardisation process, but also the throughput legitimacy thereof. What risk does the use of technical standardisation in the EU carry in terms of compromising the value of throughput legitimacy, and how could this risk be addressed? The chapter advances the proposition that a more holistic legitimacy approach to technical standardisation in the EU is required. This implies considering the ‘fit’ of technical standardisation from the perspective of the overall system of EU law and connecting and adjusting the different legal approaches to it, with a view to enhancing this fit. It is this author’s view that taking such a holistic approach would contribute to a further constitutionalisation of the use of technical standardisation in the context of the EU.