Standardization Request

The primary legal function of a standardization request is to establish a presumption of conformity. Once the requested harmonized standards are drafted, adopted, and their references published in the Official Journal of the European Union, any AI provider who demonstrably complies with those standards is automatically presumed to be in conformity with the corresponding essential requirements of the AI Act. This mechanism is critical for legal certainty:

• For Providers: It provides a clear, actionable technical path to compliance.
• For Auditors: It creates an objective benchmark for conformity assessment.
• For Regulators: It avoids the bottleneck of every system requiring direct regulatory review.

A standardization request is a highly structured legal document. Its operative part defines the political and legal context, while the technical annexes provide granular instructions. Key components include:

• Annex I: A detailed table mapping each essential requirement of the AI Act to a specific request for a technical standard.
• Annex II: Requirements for the standards themselves, such as mandating they be technology-neutral and performance-based rather than prescriptive design specifications.
• Timeline Clauses: A strict deadline by which the standardization organizations must submit a joint roadmap and final drafts, ensuring the regulatory framework is operationalized without undue delay.

A standardization request explicitly mandates an inclusive, multi-stakeholder process. The European standardization organizations are legally required to ensure that the technical committees drafting the standards include a balanced representation of:

• Industry (providers and deployers of AI systems)
• Civil society (consumer associations and NGOs)
• Academia and research
• Public authorities (market surveillance bodies) This requirement prevents regulatory capture and ensures the resulting standards are robust, practical, and aligned with the protection of fundamental rights, not just commercial interests.

While standardization requests target traditional products, the AI Act introduces a parallel track for General-Purpose AI (GPAI) models. The AI Office can facilitate the drafting of Codes of Practice for GPAI model providers. A standardization request can be issued to formalize these codes into harmonized standards later. The dynamic interplay is:

• Codes of Practice: Rapid, agile, and iterative; serve as an immediate compliance bridge.
• Standardization Request: Formal, legally robust, and provides a stable presumption of conformity once the standard is published in the OJEU. The request may explicitly reference a code of practice as a foundational input document.

A standardization request is not a blank check. The European Commission retains the right to reject a delivered standard if it fails to fully satisfy the legal requirements of the AI Act or the mandate. If the standards are deemed insufficient or the standardization bodies fail to deliver on time, the Commission can revoke the request and proceed to draft implementing acts—directly specifying the mandatory technical specifications. This backstop power ensures the standardization process remains accountable and does not become a bottleneck for the application of the AI Act.