In December 2023, the European institutions reached a political agreement on the AI Act, a new regulation on artificial intelligence. The AI Act will require providers of high-risk AI systems to test their products against harmonised standards (hENs) before affixing a European Conformity (CE) mark to allow AI products to circulate freely on the European market. However, the current EU standardisation system faces a number of problems, such as the business model for selling standards, the EU’s lack of sovereignty in its own standardisation processes and the possible emergence of conflicts of interest with industry, which raise questions about the legitimacy of the standardisation bodies. Is this system sufficient to protect us from the harms caused by AI? In this work, we examine the existing problems with the standardisation system in Europe and how they are being accentuated in the context of the AI Act. We notably examine the international and industrial influences on European standards and show that the tight schedule imposed by the Commission with the AI Act is likely to intensify them. In addition to their lack of democratic processes, the European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs) do not have the competence to properly address fundamental rights issues, although they are encouraged by the European Commission to diversify their field of expertise. Transparency and contestability of standards will play a crucial role if the European Commission is to avoid the last resort of developing standards itself.