Events 2011
A new European Standard supporting quality and transparency of management consultancy services
CEN together with the European Federation of Management Consultancies Associations (FEACO) and the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) are organised a event on 9 November 2011 in order to present the new European Standard EN 16114 Management Consultancy Services and the benefits that will derive from its implementation for Management Consulting Service providers, their clients and institutions involved. The standard was published by CEN at the end of September 2011.
The adoption of EN 16114:2011 will contribute to the competitiveness and business performance of both, management consulting services providers and their clients, based on transparency of market, offers, quality-criteria, responsibilities and results and cost-effective, high-quality and innovative management consulting services delivering added value to businesses and corporations.
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Second Bruges European Business Conference "Liberating the Power of Services", 24 March 2011, Bruges
This conference was organised by the Economics Department of the College of Europe - Bruges campus, in partnership with Deloitte. It focussed on the European internal market for services and its business opportunities, dealing with the economic and business significance of the service sector, the regulatory environment for business and key technological developments affecting the provision of services to companies operating in Europe.
The following key issues related to services liberalisation were discussed: the growing importance of services for manufacturing companies, the European cross-border mobility of workers, right of establishment and the effects of the service directive, the role of standardization, data portability, data protection and digital content.
Further information on the conference and the speakers' presentations can be found on the College of Europe website.
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Conference 'Globally successful with services standards', 25-26 January 2011, Berlin
This conference was organized by the German Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology (BMWi) together with the German Institute for Standardisation (DIN).
The objective of the conference was to demonstrate the economic benefits of services standards. It featured key speakers from the German industry such as Mr Dr. Hans-Jürgen Loss from Lufthansa and Mr Peter Günther from the VDMA (German Engineering Federation).
Further information on the conference and its results can be found on the BMWi website.
Events 2010
CEN Seminar on Standardization in the Tourism Sector, 8 December 2010, Brussels
In the last year, there have been a series of new political developments in relation to the tourism sector at European level.
The adoption of the Lisbon Treaty has created a new legal basis entirely devoted to tourism in order to support and complement the action of the Member States in this field. Moreover, in June 2010 the European Commission published a communication 
COM (2010) 352 on a new political framework for tourism in Europe, where several actions in relation to the development of sustainable, responsible and high-quality tourism are outlined. The Commission has also published in November 2010 a European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 where accessibility of goods and services is one of the main areas identified for EU action.
From the standardization point of view, CEN created in 1995 a technical committee, CEN/TC 329, in order to work on standardization in the tourism field. Moreover in 2008 CEN carried out a feasibility study in relation to the possibility to develop European Standards on accessibility to transport and tourism services within the framework of Mandate M/371 on service standardization. In addition to the standardization activities at European level, a number of standards at national and international level (ISO/TC 228 'Tourism and related services') have been developed in the last ten years.
The aim of the seminar organised by CEN was to take stock of the work done so far and to have an exchange of views with stakeholders on any needs and opportunities for new standardization work in the area of tourism services. Click here for the seminar presentations.