Standardisation in Defence

As a consequence, the Commission's policy is to support the common use of standards in defence procurement.  One major EU contribution to this goal is the European handbook on defence procurement, which gives defence procurement managers state-of-the-art standards references and shows how best to specify them in defence contracts.

If the handbook were systematically used in defence procurement contracts, it would:

• reduce divergence in standards
• lead to better-aligned national procurement practices
• support cooperation and interoperability.

Funded by the Commission and coordinated by European Committee for Standardisation, the handbook complements similar work by the NATO standardisation agency and the European Defence Agency (EDA).

EDA role

Once completed, the handbook will be maintained – under the new name "EDSTAR" – by the European Defence Agency, although the Commission will continue to be involved through membership ,of its Maintenance Committee. .
The EDA already promotes standardisation through its EDSIS portal, where participating countries can advertise materiel standards due to be developed or substantially modified, so other countries and industries can express an interest in joining these projects.