Fire Safety and Security Industry set to change with new services standard

 
The approval of new standard prEN 16763 has officially been announced by CEN/CENELEC, following on overwhelmingly positive votes cast by national standardisation bodies. Euralarm welcomes the adoption of a European standard which it has long supported and its members now prepare for the next stages in the diffusion of the standard.
Services account for between 60% and 70% of the economic activity in the 28 Member States of the European Union. For this reason, the creation of a single market for services has become a top priority for Junker’s Commission. Standardisation is increasingly being used to support the development of the Single Market for services. Euralarm, as the association representing the Electronic Fire Safety and Security Sector, has put itself at the forefront of this trend by supporting the development of a standard set to become a benchmark for other service sectors.
Euralarm sees in the adoption of the prEN 16763 standard the result of a long standing effort, initiated in 2009 with the creation of a dedicated Section within the association. The objective of the project, led by DIN, was to standardise Services for fire safety systems and security systems. This European standard lays out quality requirements for the service providers. It defines basic levels of competence of the employees entrusted with the planning, design, assembly, commissioning, verification, handover or maintenance of fire safety systems and security systems. It also describes minimum requirements on the service output and documentation.
The association’s role was instrumental in the development of consensus among its Members.
Paul Langer, a ZVEI delegate in Euralarm’s Services Section, has also played an essential part as the Chairman of the Technical Committee four (TC4) in European standardisation platform CEN-CENLEC, responsible for the development of the standard.
“The adoption of the standard is a good result. It has been a long struggle and, even right before the voting period, I was not quite sure whether we would have an approval. In the end all major European countries have accepted it. This is a victory for the Single Market!” said Paul Langer.
The prEN 16763 standard is considered to be the first step in reaching a high quality and equal service level for fire safety and security systems in all Europe. In the long run, Euralarm members hope for the standard to lead to a convergence of the existing landscape of national policies and procedures in Europe, notably through the expected development of pan-European application guidelines
The Services Section of Euralarm is now willing to support and accompany such a development with further initiatives such as explaining the objectives of the standard as well as its quality requirements in order to foster acceptance and narrow the range of interpretations.
Euralarm will also encourage the exchange of best practices to support the convergence of the certification requirements, in collaboration with all stakeholders involved: test houses, certification bodies and their clients.