The Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies (WP.6) aims to promote regulatory cooperation, standardization policies and activities which contribute towards reducing technical barriers to trade, promoting sustainable development in all its dimensions including, for example, gender equality, climate and environmental protection, circular economy, and the adaptation to new technologies. WP.6 and its predecessors have over fifty years of history servicing Governments in the UNECE region.
The main activities of WP.6 include:
- Developing recommendations to guide policy makers and standards development organizations (SDOs)
- Providing a neutral forum to convene member States, SDOs, country agencies, private sector and non-governmental agencies to promote cooperation and sharing of experiences
- Raising awareness about new challenges of relevance to standardization and regulation, such as gender, the circular economy, digitalization, new technologies and other..
The brochure of WP.6 is available in English, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic.
The working party has existed since 1970 in various formats; its predecessor bodies were:
- Working Party on Technical harmonization and Standardization Policies (1991 to 2004)
- Group of Government Officials Responsible for Standardization Policies (1970 to 1991)
The Working Party meets annually; the latest meeting pages, documents and reports are available at:
- 23 to 24 November 2023, 33rd Session of WP.6
- 07 to 09 November 2022, 32nd Session of WP.6
- 24 to 26 November 2021, 31st Session of WP.6
- 02 to 03 November 2020, 30th Session (virtual, informal) of WP.6
- 20 to 22 November 2019, 29th Session of WP.6
- 14 to 16 November 2018, 28th Session of WP.6
- 28 to 30 November 2017, 27th Session of WP.6
- 30 November to 02 December 2016, 26th Session of WP.6
- 01 to 03 December 2015, 25th Session of WP.6
There are four subgroups which inform the work of WP.6 (more information available under the Work Areas menu on the left.
- Advisory Group on Market Surveillance (MARS)
- Group of Experts on Risk Management in Regulatory Systems (GRM)
- Ad-Hoc Team of Specialists on Standardization and Regulatory Techniques (START)
- Team of Specialists on Gender Responsive Standards (GRSI)
WP.6 also contributes to several transversal themes within the United Nations, including (more information available in the “About us” section):
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
- Circular economy
- Digital, green transformations
- Disaster risk reduction