CEN

Transitioning to a circular economy has profound societal impacts by promoting sustainability, resource efficiency, and economic resilience. It fosters a reduction in waste and pollution, which enhances environmental quality and public health. By encouraging businesses to design for longevity, repairability, and recyclability, it creates new job opportunities and stimulates innovation across industries. Additionally, it empowers communities to engage in sustainable practices and reduces dependency on finite resources. Overall, a circular economy nurtures a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient society, aligning economic activities with long-term environmental and social well-being.

Transitioning to a circular economy has profound societal impacts by promoting sustainability, resource efficiency, and economic resilience. It promotes a reduction in waste and pollution, thereby enhancing environmental quality and public health. Encouraging businesses to design for longevity, repairability, and recyclability creates new job opportunities and stimulates innovation across industries. Additionally, it empowers communities to adopt sustainable practices and reduces their dependency on finite resources. Overall, a circular economy nurtures a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient society, aligning economic activities with long-term environmental and social well-being.

Lifts, escalators and moving walks are essential elements for the transportation of society. With this work safe access and accessibility for all is provided. Furthermore, this work encompasses energy efficiency and adherence to the United Nations' sustainability goals namely 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 which are integral components of the standards.

Until 2022, the lift and escalator industry lacked dedicated ICT standards—aside from those addressing cybersecurity. Initially, the approach within ISO and CEN was to integrate all relevant topics directly into the core product standards, often referred to as the "product bible": ISO 8100-1/2 and ISO 8103-1. Notably, ISO 8103-1 was published at the end of 2024 as a new global escalator standard, mirroring the European EN 115-1 requirements. This marked a major milestone for the industry, as it was the first time that European safety standards for escalators and moving walks would be applied globally.

As the field evolved and specific topics became increasingly complex, supplementary standards were introduced to support and expand upon the core documents.

It soon became apparent that ICT, due to its rapid advancement, remained insufficiently covered. In response, a strategic initiative was launched to assess the situation, define a roadmap for the future, and close this gap. Developing new standards and technical specifications in this area is now a top priority (further details in the following chapters).

At the same time, the core product standards must continue to be maintained, with general ICT aspects gradually integrated into them.
Another major challenge faced by ISO/TC 178 and the global lift and escalator sector is the current dynamic in China. The country is rapidly developing its local standards, with significantly shorter release timelines and fewer stakeholders involved compared to the ISO and CEN processes. This highlights the critical need for SAC to remain actively engaged in ISO and to adopt ISO standards as national standards. To address this, additional partnerships have been formed, and regular exchange meetings are held to ensure the highest possible level of influence and alignment.

Lifts, escalators, and moving walks are vital for ensuring safe and efficient access to buildings. Globally, there are over 18 million lifts and escalators in operation, with nearly half located in Europe. Each year, more than 1 million new units are installed. Approximately 325 million passengers use lifts daily, while escalators and moving walks support over 10 billion rides every day.
In the coming decades, the population aged 65 and above is projected to grow by nearly 33%, with those over 80 doubling in number. As the global population ages, accessibility becomes increasingly critical. Multi-floor buildings will require vertical transportation systems, including lifts, escalators, stair lifts, and platform lifts, to accommodate the growing demand for accessible infrastructure.
As essential components of building functionality, lifts, escalators, and moving walks are classified as modes of transport. They ensure safe access for all and are designed for free and independent use by passengers. This underscores the importance of robust safety measures to protect users.
By establishing harmonized safety and performance standards, these efforts support the development of resilient, accessible, and low-impact urban environments that are better prepared for demographic and environmental change.

This standard boosts the creation of a certification system for biometric solutions to be used in different scenarios. One of the first scenarios to be addressed is the remote identification of citizens using videoconference tools, i.e., using facial recognition with the users’ digital devices. But other scenarios will be added during this proposal, such as the use of face recognition in the future EUDI Wallet.

This activity paves the path to the technical definition and implementation of the EUDIW and the services related. It is important to note that by reaching interoperable EUDIWs, the following sectors will benefit:
Service providers and Administrations will find their work easier in identifying the citizen using the service, without acquiring more information that the one really needed. Therefore, the accomplishment of GDPR policies will be easier.
Manufacturers and integrators will have to go only through one set of specifications, not creating products that may not be accepted by the context of eIDAS2.
Citizens will see their identity secured, and privacy enhanced by only disclosing the relevant information to the services being used.

In terms of broader European interests, my fellowship contributes to EU goals of digital sovereignty, user empowerment, and privacy leadership on the global stage. As the EUDI wallet is adopted across Europe, this framework will provide a scalable model for data protection and user-centric identity management that can be extended beyond digital wallets to other data-sharing contexts, enhancing Europe’s role as a privacy leader. With data privacy becoming a key competitive factor, this initiative not only strengthens the protection of EU citizens’ rights but also sets a high standard for digital identity solutions globally.

My work supports fundamental societal values by helping define how citizens can safely and transparently share their personal data through the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet. At the heart of this is the development of access control standards that ensure individuals are not just passive data subjects, but active participants who can decide what data is shared, with whom, under what conditions, and for what declared purpose.
By enabling these controls through enforceable, machine-readable policies, the standard empowers users to exercise real agency over their digital identity—moving beyond consent screens toward meaningful privacy protections embedded in the architecture of the wallet itself. This aligns with the EU’s commitment to privacy, data minimisation, and purpose limitation under the GDPR.
The work also supports societal inclusion by ensuring that access control mechanisms are transparent and usable, helping citizens understand their rights and obligations, while also simplifying compliance for service providers. The inclusion of ISO/IEC 27560 in this framework ensures that all lawful bases for processing—not just consent—are clearly documented and traceable, which is especially important for use cases like healthcare, education, or public services.
Importantly, the open availability of ISO/IEC 27560 as a free standard lowers the barrier for adoption, supporting uptake by public administrations, SMEs, and civil society. This ensures that privacy-enhancing technologies are not limited to large commercial actors, but can benefit all layers of European society.
Overall, this work contributes to a more trustworthy, transparent, and citizen-centric digital identity ecosystem—one that upholds European values while supporting innovation, cross-border interoperability, and regulatory alignment.