For Europe to benefit fully from the Information Society, standardization is an important prerequisite. The traditional standards environment, in the face of the sheer pace of technological innovation and changes in market demands, is responding to the challenge.
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Increasingly, people in Europe are beginning to perceive that the Information Society is a reality in their lives rather than just a futuristic notion. The rapid advance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) should empower us all and create the opportunity to change the way that we work, study and live. This is a global issue since these developments are completely unfettered by national borders. A Global Information Society is forming.
Europe has therefore developed a system of standardization that takes into account the needs and aims of all parties: major corporations, the public and other consumers, small and medium-sized enterprises, and public authorities. Standardization can help industry to reach a critical mass and achieve a return on R&D costs more quickly. Interoperability improves competition so that users benefit from more than one choice of system and greater ease of access. The diversity and competition that are encouraged are vital for Europe's economic prosperity.
However, the ICT sector moves extremely fast. The life cycle of ICT products and applications is often shorter than traditional international standardization processes. It can be difficult for European industry and public bodies always to secure the best standards - in the best time possible - at the international level. There is no denying that open standards with pan-European or global reach are in the public interest, but the standardization process must never interfere with the commercial imperative to develop competitive products and release them onto the market. Standardization must complement the ICT industry's innovations and time-to-market, not hinder them.
European Standardization Organizations are united in their willingness to adopt a flexible, market-led approach, making full use of rapidly created technical specifications as well as traditional European Standards. European public authorities strongly support ICT standardization, recognizing the significant part that it can play in developing the single market and in building the Information Society in Europe.
This was stressed by the European Commission in a 1996 Communication from the Commission to the Council and the Parliament on "Standardization and the Global Information Society: the European Approach" (COM (96) 359), which continues to provide the impulse and support to standardization in crucial areas of public policy interest.
In 1999, in order to ensure that all of Europe benefited from the current advances in ICT, the European Union launched a new initiative - "eEurope 2002 - An Information Society For All". This identified eleven Action Lines for concentrated effort, most of these involving standardization activity.
Building on the success of this initiative, in June 2002 the EU went on to launch the "eEurope 2005" Action Plan. Standardization work will again play a vital supporting role in ensuring the delivery of modern on-line public services and a dynamic business environment.
The ICTSB is actively supporting the initiatives.