The European Commission is organising an open meeting in Brussels on 12 February 2008 on the European ICT standardisation policy. Mr Günter Verheugen, the European Commission Vice-President responsible for Enterprise and Industry will open the conference.

Information and Communication Technology services and applications are developing fast in today’s global economy. At the same time, ICT products and services have become an integral part of our everyday life. Europe must create an environment which meets both industry’s needs and society’s expectations; to promote the competitiveness of European industry while ensuring that all citizens can further benefit from the opportunities created by the Information Society.

The European standardisation system aims to balance industrial requirements with society’s expectations and to provide public authorities with the standards they need to help them implement legislation in support of agreed policies. However, there were concerns that the European ICT standardisation policy could not respond to these expectations to the degree required. The European Commission therefore launched a study on ‘The specific policy needs for ICT standardisation’ in order to analyse the current state of the European ICT standardisation policy and to present recommendations for its future development. First discussions on the results of the study, including its recommendations for a new policy direction, have been held with a number of key stakeholders.

Given the critical importance of an efficient European ICT standardisation policy, the European
Commission is therefore organising this meeting with a view to present and discuss the study recommendations more widely with all interested parties.

The meeting will be held in English. However, there will be simultaneous translation to French, German, Italian and Spanish if it is required by the attendants in their registration form before 31 December 2007. Participation is free-of-charge and registration is available online. Deadline for registering is set for 15 January.

Event website:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/standards/cf2008_en.htm

Venue:
European Commission
Charlemagne Building
170 Rue de la Loi (Wetstraat)
BE-1049 Brussels
Belgium

Contact:
E-mail: ENTR-ICT-STANDARDISATION@ec.europa.eu