ANEC (organisation)

The European consumer voice in standardisation

Abbreviation	ANEC
Formation	1995
Type	Regional consumer organisation
Registration no.	507800799-30[1]
Legal status	non-profit organisation (AISBL)
Purpose	Raising standards for European consumers
Headquarters	Rue d'Arlon 80
Location	Brussels 1040
Region	Europe
Fields	standardization
Membership	29 states  Austria  Belgium  Bulgaria  Cyprus  Czechia  Denmark  Estonia  Finland  France  Germany  Greece  Iceland  Ireland  Italy  Latvia  Lithuania  North Macedonia  Malta  Norway  Poland  Portugal  Romania  Serbia  Slovenia  Spain  Sweden  The Netherlands  Turkey  United Kingdom
President	Dermott Jewell
Director-General	Stephen Russell
Main organ	ANEC Secretariat
Affiliations	European Union, EFTA
Website	www.anec.eu

ANEC, formally The European consumer voice in standardisation (prior to June 2022, The European Association for the Coordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation),^[2] is an organisation promoting and defending the collective European consumer interest in the process of standardization, and in related fields such as conformity assessment (e.g.certification), market surveillance and enforcement. ANEC also aims to influence legislation that makes reference to standards or standardization.^[3] In November 2008, ANEC adopted the strapline 'Raising Standards for Consumers' as part of an initiative to improve the visibility of the association. On 15 March 2018, World Consumer Rights' Day, ANEC launched a short video (2 minutes 15 seconds) to explain its role and highlight some of its successes.^[4]

ANEC provides technical expertise and advice drawn from a network of consumer representatives across Europe. In 2022, the association's 185 experts contributed to the work of 237 technical committees and working groups of the European Standardization Organisations, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI and international standards organisations, ISO and IEC, participating in 579 meetings and contributing 456 sets of comments on draft standards.^[5]

On 15 June 2022, an Extraordinary General Meeting of the association adopted new Statutes. The most visible modifications introduced by the Statutes were the change in the legal title of the association, and the change in the title of the lead executive from Secretary-General to Director-General.^[6]