The Integration of Global Standards into the EU as ‘Regulatory Union’

Standards set by bodies outside of the institutional architecture of the European Union (EU) enter the EU legal system and may influence EU decision-making procedures through various pathways. These include legislative references and delegation of powers to standardisation bodies, as well as the use of principles developed in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) case law. The great diversity of types of standards, their origin, the procedure by which they have been established, and their – often hidden – ‘entry points’ into EU law, raises multiple legality issues. As this chapter will show, this process also calls for some critical reflection on issues of legitimacy, not least due to the powerful role that standards play in regulating EU policies.