FOR ACTION: NORMAPME Position on ISO/TC 228 proposal “Environmental friendly accommodation”

Deadline: For action before February 28th 2011

ISO/TC 228 deals with the development of standards concerning “tourism and related services”.

On January 17th 2011 a draft was presented by the Turkish Standardisation Institute (TSE) promoting a standard development project titled “Environmentally friendly accommodation”.  At first glance, this might seem to address a key issue; however when one goes into the details the draft one clearly sees that such a standard would duplicate initiatives already in existence on both global and local levels. This proposal falls outside of the of the scope and business plan of the ISO Technical Committee 228 and its development will impose considerable obligations on SMEs without any significant added value in return. Furthermore there has been no declaration of need for such standards by the hotel and restaurant business and its many SMEs.

We encourage you to make an immediate intervention to your national standards body to vote against the establishment of the proposal as new work item.

As the decision on whether to establish this proposal as a work item is to be made via e-balloting before 28th February we kindly ask you to intervene as soon as possible.

For your convenience in this, we have drafted a letter http://extranet.normapme.com/files/13/ISOTC_228_letter.doc [right click to download] outlining the arguments against the initiative from the SME perspective in order to express your objection. We encourage you to use the arguments given in this letter as well as in the accompanying comments particularly because when voting against a proposal it is necessary for the national standards institute to present an argument against the proposal. On the contrary, in order to vote in favour of the proposal or to issue an abstention no argument is required. Therefore we ask you to enter a vote against this proposal with the argument and not simply an abstention. 

Please keep us informed about the result of your intervention and consult Mr. Christian Vanik, the NORMAPME expert on this issue if further information is required christian.vanik@wko.at , +43 664 8179051.