Brussels, 14/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - This Tuesday's World Standards Day focussed on the role of standards for the information society. It should also open the way for United States-European Union dialogue on ICT (information and communication technology) standards, for security solutions, for instance. Both parties intend to keep each other informed about ICT standards used generally, or provided for in legislation. This could be an extremely useful process to avoid market distortion and commercial friction. Technical obstacles to the information society could arise from the legal recognition of differing or incompatible technical standards This dialogue would add to the guidelines drawn up in April 2002 between the EU and the USA on co-operation in the regulatory field (see EUROPE of 16 April 2002). This agreement, it should be noted, is currently the subject of a complaint by France to the Court of Justice of the European Communities.
To mark World Standards Day, Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, responsible for business and the information society, also invited Commission staff to attend an information session on European standardising bodies and how they work.