The European Commission made clear its desire to modernise standards setting within the EU, while announcing how it intends to improve the partnership between European institutions and the standardisation community.

“If we want the European market to have the first-mover advantage, we need to speed up and better prioritise standard setting across the board,” said Jyrki Katainen (pictured), EU vice president for jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness.

Jyrki Katainen“With today’s standardisation package, we are helping raise competitiveness, power innovation and create a predictable and stable investment framework in the EU,” added Katainen (pictured, left).

The announcement is wide ranging, not just concerned with standards in the tech sector, although the commission previously identified ICT, along with services, as priority sectors.

In April, the commission proposed measures to speed standards setting in five areas: 5G, cloud, Internet of Things, data technologies and cybersecurity. Now the commission is recommending a renewed focus on the services sector too.

In addition, the EC announced next steps on its Joint Initiative on Standardisation (JIS), which brings together European and national standardisation bodies, as well as industry, SMEs, consumer groups, trade unions, environmental bodies, member states and the commission itself.

The partners will commit to modernise and speeding up the delivery of standards by the end of 2019. A framework for the JIS will be formally launched on 13 June in Amsterdam.