View from the Chair

PRESS RELEASE

9 June 2005

BSI Chairman Sir David John shared his views on the ability of standardization to work for the benefit of industry in his keynote speech at a major European standardization conference held in Budapest on June 8.

Sir David was representing the UK at the 1st Annual meeting of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) where representatives from The European Commission and national governments, key trade bodies, Chairmen of the CEN and CENELEC Technical committees, major industrialists and other national standards bodies were all in attendance.

Sir David addressed the role of standardization in improving productivity, reducing trade barriers and enabling interoperability and emphasised the need for Europe to work together to create a competitive marketplace.

In addition to Sir David, other British representatives played a key role in the conference. Dr Peter Hatto (Director of Research, Ionbond) was a discussion panel member, writer and broadcaster Frances Edmonds was a presenter and Michael Kelly (CEN President) provided closing remarks.

In this time of uncertainty about the future of the European economy, the national standardization bodies came together to help improve EU economic and social wealth by leveraging Europe’s strength in standardization.

- ENDS-

Notes to Editors:

For further information on the 1st CEN/CENELEC annual meeting visit www.cenorm.be

Sir David John KCMG was elected Chairman of BSI in July 2002 after joining the BSI
board in May 2002 as a non-executive director. He is currently Chairman of Premier Oil
plc and Balfour Beatty plc. Sir David is the immediate past chairman of the BOC group

For media information:
Lucy Fulton
Public Relations Officer
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8996 7248
Mob: +44 (0) 7717 451 990
Email: lucy.fulton@bsi-global.com

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For further information on British Standards please visit: www.bsi-global.com/british_standards