Brussels, 16/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - During a seminary on standardisation held on World Standards Day, the European Commission's Director General for Enterprise, Jean-Paul Mingasson, stressed the important role played by European standards, with more than 14,000 today. He explained that this helped to move the "centre of gravity" in the activities of national standards organisations towards those of European bodies. But he was also critical of the slowness in the adoption of these standards. He declared that it was currently clear than three year deadlines are no longer relevant and that modern tools at work and in communications could allow for European standards and other standardisation products to be more rapidly implemented in sectors where technology is rapidly developing. He also said that the implementation planned from January 2004 for a new contractual and financial system guiding relations between the Commission and the three standardisation bodies - the (CEN) The European Committee for Standardisation, the (CENELEC) The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Mr Mingasson announced that that the next European Commission communication on the "The Role of European Standardisation" could be proposed to the College in the second half of 2004. The objective of this documents is manifold: more extensive use of standardisation in the elaboration of European legislation, improving decision makes and advisors' knowledge about the role of standardisation, encourage the development and use of new standardisation products that are more flexible, notably in the information technology sector, increase the participation of all parties concerned with the elaboration of standards and make the institutional and financial framework more secure.