COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
? I 
Brussels, 24.07.1996 
COM(%) 359 final 
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 
ON "STANDARDIZATION AND THE GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY 
THE EUROPEAN APPROACH" 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 
ON "STANDARDIZATION AND THE GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY : 
THE EUROPEAN APPROACH" 
Introduction. 
I. THE ROLE OF STANDARDIZATION IN THE ICT MARKET 
II. STANDARDS IN A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT 
1. The leading role of market players 
2. A changing role for formal standardization 
III. EUROPEAN STANDARDIZATION POLICY FOR BUILDING THE GLOBAL 
INFORMATION SOCIETY 
1. Improving global competitiveness 
2. Promoting new technical solutions 
3. Protecting the public interest 
4. Reinforcing international cooperation 
IV. THE ACCEPTANCE AND USE OF PUBLICLY AVAILABLE SPECIFICATIONS IN 
COMMUNITY LAW 
1. Technical specifications and the New Approach 
2. Enhancing specification for public procurement 
3. Interoperability and applications for use by authorities 
Conclusions 
Annex A Research and Technological Development and Demonstration 
Annex B Glossary of Abbreviations 
INTRODUCTION 
Standards are not only a technical question. They determine the technology that will 
implement the Information Society, and consequently the way in which industry, users, 
consumers and administrations will benefit from it. They play an important role in co­
operation and competition between companies, are a key element for the effectiveness of 
the Single Market and are essential for the competitiveness of European industry. 
It is evident that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) market is 
dominated by specifications from the USA. However, most of these specifications are 
open in nature, and there is no restriction on their use by European enterprises. 
Nonetheless, proximity to those who set standards1 gives enterprises a competitive 
advantage, since they are able to bring their products earlier to market. It is therefore 
important that European enterprises become world-class, either in order to become 
leaders in the market and to set the standards themselves, or at any rate to cooperate with 
them. In this sense, standards cannot compensate for weaknesses in market positions. 
Nevertheless, there are some areas in which it is observable that standards have 
contributed to European competitiveness in the market place. One example is provided 
by the World Wide Web (WWW), which is a European invention, originally by CERN, 
but whose further development is now market-driven, and economically widely used in 
Internet; and the GSM mobile telephony standard which has led to European leadership 
in many parts of the world. One may conclude from this that standards are necessary but 
by no means sufficient for competitiveness. The development of appropriate world level 
standards will depend on the participation by European industry in international 
specification-writing organisations. Thus standards form a vital part of European 
industrial competitiveness policy. 
The aim of this Communication is to examine how, in the light of the characteristics of 
the ICT market and the ICT standards process, the best possible conditions can be created 
for the drawing up of standards needed for the implementation of the Information 
Society, and to indicate by what means the Community intends to promote those aspects 
for which it has a particular responsibility. 
THE ROLE OF STANDARDIZATION IN THE ICT MARKET 
Information technology has evolved from stand-alone or closed user systems to a 
mass-market product. This has highlighted issues such as the emergence of 
networks and the need for components to work together. The ability of products 
from different manufacturers to work one with another ("interoperability") is 
In customary usage in the information and communications technology field, the term "standard" 
is used loosely to denote any technical specification. In the usage of international, European and 
national standards bodies, and also in certain Community legislative instruments, the term 
"standard" has, by contrast, a specific, defined meaning; it generally indicates the documents 
drawn up by a consensus process involving all interested parties, for voluntary application and 
whose issue is by a recognised standardization organisation, (liven the defined legal definition of 
standards in Community law and the link between Community law and "formal" standards, in this 
document, the term "standard" should be understood as the standard adopted by a formal 
standards institute Other standards will lie referred to as "technical specifications" or "de facto 
standards". 
I <v 
important in the use of many ICT products and services. Standardization is a 
voluntary process and retlects the dynamics of the market. For products with 
short life cycles and immediate economic profits the market will tend to adopt 
technical specifications in the framework of consortia or use de facto standards; in 
other cases, the market will prefer to adopt formal standards, for instance in the 
case of large-scale investment, or with a view to adopting international standards. 
Standards have to follow the life-cycles of products or services, but since ICT 
product cycle times are short and becoming shorter, standards adopted following 
traditional procedures often prove inappropriate because of the lengthy 
procedures involved in their elaboration. In some areas, however, such as the 
development of basic telecommunications infrastructures, technical specifications 
need to have long-term stability and will constitute a guarantee that will allow 
users confidently to make the large investments that are needed. In 
telecommunications, the market tends to be fragmented because of national 
telecommunications monopolies, residual or continued national regulation, and 
different national implementations of similar technical specifications. For the user 
to benefit from this new situation, the interconnection of networks of different 
operators is critical. 
2. ICT markets are likely to show a standardizing process in which a minimal 
specification will emerge, followed by the development of a number of competing 
technical specifications as the technology becomes more widely used. This 
implies that several common technical specifications may emerge in parallel, 
followed by a shakeout in which one or possibly two common technical 
specifications representing the technology that is dominant in the market are all 
that survive. Whilst the ideal standardization process consists of an open 
consensus of all those with a market interest in the product being standardized, 
followed by the issue of a formal standard, in the ICT area, because of the rapidity 
of technological advance, and the advantage to be gained from the control of 
dominant specifications, it is not unusual for dominant market players to attempt 
to reinforce, by means of technical specifications, their dominant position in the 
market place. 
3. The role of formal standardization has changed. Because of the time necessary for 
its procedures, and the constraints of consensus, formal standardization has not 
always been able to deliver standards in due time for their wide acceptance in 
innovative technology and in such a way as to prevent the emergence of dominant 
proprietary specifications. Both the scope and procedures of formal 
standardization therefore need to be considered. As a reaction to the limitations of 
formal standardization, fora and consortia have emerged that are drawing up 
specifications for common use by their participants. Such documents can rapidly 
achieve widespread market acceptance. Where established in the market place 
they are sometimes known as de facto standards. When made publicly available, 
they are sometimes known as publicly available specifications (PAS). Such 
documents can make technical contributions that already incorporate a significant 
level of consensus to the relevant standards bodies. 
Major questions that have therefore to be addressed are: 
• Will the necessary and sufficient standards be available? Will they cause 
fragmentation or help convergence in markets? Will they be used to 
confirm or create dominant positions, or de facto monopolies in ICT? Will 
they enable users to take full advantage of the telecommunications 
liberalization that will take place in 1998? 
• What changes are necessary to the scope and procedures of formal 
standardization? 
• How is it possible through standardization to enable European citizens and 
enterprises to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by the Global 
Information Society? 
II. STANDARDS IN A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT. 
1. The leading role of market players. 
5. European industry and services providers need to seek proximity to world leaders; 
without participation in the global strategic process they cannot achieve world-
class status. Therefore, they should be encouraged to participate in the 
international fora that define strategies for ICT standardization at the world level. 
European companies should be at the forefront of the strategic process in order to 
reap the full benefits from the ICT market. 
If the European economy as a whole is to benefit from the elaboration of publicly 
available specifications, a high degree of transparency will be needed and the 
incoherence that might arise from the emergence of a large number of groups, not 
to mention the waste of resources involved in duplication, should be avoided. The 
Commission therefore, welcomes the formation of a High-Level Strategy Group, 
representing various sectors of industry and European industrial organisations, 
intended "to oversee standardization at a strategic level and to determine the key 
requirements for standards in a business context"2. 
6. Standardization is a commercial activity, and must be regarded as such. In the 
ICT sector, specifications are an expression of market power, and breadth of 
consensus is of less importance. With respect to Community competition law, i.e., 
Articles 85 - 86 of the Treaty de facto standards or PAS must be considered as 
cooperation between companies and have to be assessed for this reason. In all 
cases competition must remain possible. 
On the basis of the general principles contained in the 1968 Communication on 
agreements, decisions and concerted practices concerning co-operation between 
enterprises3, cooperation between companies in consortia should meet a number 
of criteria. The parties concerned must respect the open membership/constitution 
character of consortia (fora), that is, the possibility for any interested company to 
participate. This implies that the existence of the consortia must be made public. 
"Europe towards the Global Information Society: new directions arising from the Gcnval 
Workshop", OPOCE, Luxembourg, 1995 
OJLC N° C75 of 29.07.1968, p.3 
3 
Further, within such entities decision-making processes must be transparent. Such 
mechanisms must be careful to permit genuine participation in the work by less 
favoured partners who wish to take part: a certain equality and balance between 
the partners, even though limited by practicalities, must characterise the 
functioning of these fora. The specifications issued by such consortia must be 
drawn up in such a manner as to allow competition within the framework of the 
envisaged technical solutions. This is also desirable to reduce the possibility of 
conflict with intellectual property rights (IPRs). Any lack of transparency 
regarding the existence of patents in the chosen technologies, or any possibility of 
discriminatory conduct in the issuing of licences, would demonstrate the 
existence of ulterior motives incompatible with a technical co-operation 
agreement. 
2. A changing role for formal standardization 
7. It is for commercial reasons that the role of formal standardization in the ICT 
sector has declined, at least where standards are required in the short term. Formal 
standards should be directed to those areas that need a broad consensus, where the 
market sees it as necessary, for example, where specifications should form a 
lasting basis, or should become established as international standards. 
8. Formal standards organisations in Europe, recognised by law at European level 
(Directive 83/189/EEC), are CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. These three European 
organisations develop formal standards through agreed, open and transparent 
procedures, based on a consensus of all interested parties. Even though detailed 
procedures differ based on the characteristics of membership (in CEN and 
CENELEC the work is organised largely around national delegations, whereas in 
ETSI economic players can join directly as members) this consensus is sought 
and expressed through a public enquiry and a vote organized at national level. 
Formal standards, therefore, present a particular legitimacy which distinguishes 
them from de facto standards and from FAS, and which allow national and 
Community law to have recourse to them. 
Although market operators are responsible for the output and quality of 
standardization, the European standards organizations have a role of maintaining 
a "cohesive system of 1 European standards"4. This covers two different aspects: 
that of conferring - if all the necessary requirements are met - the status of 
standards on market developed documents, and, secondly, ensuring greater 
coherence between technical specifications. 
9. Technical specifications elaborated by consortia may be based on a consensus of 
all interested parties, but in the view of those parties the disadvantages of the 
standardization process, i.e., lengthy and costly procedures without direct 
participation, may outweigh the advantages granted by the ultimate status of the 
document as a formal standard. In such cases standards bodies should examine 
how, through specific procedures or arrangements, such documents can still be 
brought within the ambit of European standardization by conferring upon them 
Council Resolution of I <S o ! 992 on the role of standardization in the European economy (OJEC 
No. ('173 of 9.7 1992. p. I ) 
4 
the status of standards. Given that the European standards organizations already 
have a number of "fast track" procedures, part of their task may be to provide 
better information and to promote their services more actively. 
Conferring the status of standards upon publicly available specifications is not 
appropriate where technical specifications do not have a consensus of all 
interested parties; where documents, whether or not yet based on consensus of all 
interested parties, concern a technology that is so rapidly evolving that existing 
standardization procedures are unable to follow its evolution; where the status of 
standard does not add value to technical specifications used by industry or where 
the position regarding IPRs is not yet settled. 
10. It is the view of the European Commission that the European standards 
organizations should assess the extent of their role. They should strengthen their 
cooperation with other organisations that write specifications in ICT related areas. 
Close links will enable organisations of users in particular technical sectors to 
offer particular standardization requirements, and the technical infrastructure of 
the European standards organisations could support the work of user 
organisations. 
European standards organizations have to examine whether their present range of 
deliverables still meets market requirements. In particular, the European 
organizations have the necessary infrastructure and experience to elaborate 
common technical specifications which do not have the status of standards, but 
which are still capable of catering for a large sectoral consensus and geographical 
coverage. In appropriate circumstances, such documents could also serve as a 
European input to the international standardization process. In this context, it may 
be useful to mention that ETSI, and EWOS, the European Workshop on Open 
Systems have embarked on this route. 
Where a technical sector stands in need of common specifications, but does not 
need to confer the status of standards upon them, the European standardization 
organizations should examine the possibility of offering their infrastructure for the 
elaboration of such common specifications on the basis of open workshops. They 
should also examine the possibility of their acting as an official depository for 
Publicly Available Specifications. They might also offer technical assistance, 
contribute to increased transparency and provide a structure for distribution. 
11. The issue of FAS raises the question of the extent to which the {European 
standards organisations can promote "competing" documents, even where they 
are presented with different status, such as a European Standard (EN) in parallel 
with a FAS. In this respect it is necessary to bear the voluntary nature of 
standardization in mind, and also that standardization should never constitute a 
formal impediment to the introduction to the market of new products or new 
technologies. Competing products and technologies should not be excluded from 
standardization. 1 lowever, the difference between competing standards and the 
standardization oi' competing technologies may in reality sometimes be difficult 
to discern. The following points should be noted: 
• the nature of standardization, and of the standstill obligations upon the 
member bodies of the European standards organisations, make it obligatory 
that no conflicting solutions be offered in standards for the same product or 
technology; 
• European standards organisations bear a significant responsibility for 
coordinating and drafting standards in such a way that competing 
technologies are not in practice excluded from the market; 
• the possibility open to a European standards organization to make available, 
as PAS, documents containing other technologies, should not be considered 
as an "appeal" procedure if another technology has been selected in a 
European standard by consensus of all interested parties; 
• where public interests are at stake, and if the need therefore arises, the public 
authorities should, by way of mandates adopted in conformity with Directive 
83/189, give the necessary guidance to European standards organizations, in 
particular for conferring the status of standards upon PAS. 
12. In the field of formal standardization there also remains a need for coordination. 
The Commission, therefore, welcomes the setting up of the ICT Standards Board 
by CEN, CENELEC and ETSI with the participation of other specification-
writing bodies. Its task is to coordinate and supervise standardization activities 
that fall within its scope, defined by the governing bodies of CEN, CENELEC 
and ETSI, broadly covering the ICT field. The Commission however, invites the 
standards bodies to implement a workshop structure in order to achieve the best 
possible level of coordination between themselves and with the market operators, 
who remain responsible for the establishment of a coherent structure. 
13. In formal standardization, the search for consensus is organised through national 
representation. The Commission considers, however, that alongside national 
representation there is an urgent need to increase direct user participation in 
strategy planning and standardization activities. In particular, there should be a 
discussion of how users' representation could be further improved in the 
CEN/CENELEC/ETSI ICT Standards Board. 
III. EUROPEAN STANDARDIZATION POLICY FOR BUILDING THE GLOBAL 
INFORMATION SOCIETY. 
1. Improving global competitiveness 
14. If the Information Society is to prove effective, a clear political commitment by 
the Member Stales to openness to its implementation is necessary. The 
persistence of regulatory barriers to trade will continue to impede European 
access to the advantages offered by the Information Society. Consequently, the 
Commission will need to ensure that such obstacles are identified and where 
necessary removed, further harmonization of national provisions concerning 
telecommunications networks and terminal equipment will already open the 
market substantially. Action needs to be maintained to ensure that no new barriers 
of this type are erected. Statistics on telecommunications-related notifications 
made under the framework of Directive XVIXWEC suggests that Member States 
still have a high regulatory activity: for example, in the three years from 1992 to 
() 
1994 telecommunications was the largest sector in which draft national measures 
were notified, comprising in all nearly one third of all notifications. New 
measures may need to be adopted to ensure that actions by the Member States that 
are liable to create barriers to the implementation of the Information Society can 
be made the subject of prior scrutiny. 
15. While in principle standards or PAS promote market-based competition, the 
drawing up of technical specifications can sometimes have discriminatory effects. 
For example: companies proposing a certain specification could in certain 
circumstances gain an unjustified headway or know-how advantage compared to 
their competitors; and the process of choosing between competing specifications 
could in certain cases be unduly influenced by particular private interests. 
Therefore, public authorities have a role in ensuring that standardization respects 
competition rules. In this context, it should be borne in mind that standardization 
bodies are also subject to Articles 85 and 86 of the EU Treaty. 
16. As users of information technology, within a relatively homogenous application 
area, public authorities are an important market player. Furthermore, public 
procurement is a large factor in the European economy and public authorities are 
significant purchasers of ICT technology5. The market's perception of its interest 
will be influenced by the fact that governments and other public procurement 
entities are themselves major economic players. The use of specifications by 
public procurement entities will establish them to a great extent in the market. 
Public Procurement Directives, whilst establishing a hierarchy in specifications to 
be referred to in calls for tender, allow a derogation for projects of a genuinely 
innovative nature for which the use of existing formal European specifications is 
obsolete. This possibility is a major tool for the introduction of new technologies 
in the Public Procurement market. It allows public authorities to promote the use 
of pre-standardized technologies and products resulting from RTD. 
17. The development and uptake of electronic commerce is conditioned by 
standardization and de facto standards. Interoperability extending across 
organisations and enterprises has an impact on enterprises and on complete 
industries or service sectors and their global competitiveness. Achieving this 
implies addressing standardization in the global context in coherence with 
technological developments. The current speed o( technological developments, 
the high stakes in the uptake of electronic commerce, and the efforts of Europe's 
competitors to try lo establish market dominance make a more coordinated and 
targeted approach to standardization in electronic commerce a matter of urgency. 
The Commission is therefore currently analysing the position of standards and 
specifications in electronic commerce, and is preparing initiatives, in 
collaboration with all relevant market operators, for the development, application 
and promotion of specifications and standards for electronic commerce in Europe 
and world-wide. 
Various initiatives have been developed in this context, (examples are the European Procurement 
Handbook tor Open Systems-(EPHOS) project, the Interchange of Data between Administrations 
(IDA) programme, and the "STEPS" (solutions for telematics in European public services) 
Handbook developed by the Telematics tor Administrations sector within the Telematics 
Applications Programme A review process for the EPHOS and IDA programmes has been 
launched. 
7 
18. The transmission of sound and pictures by cable and/or satellite is moving 
towards full digitization with significant quality improvements and added 
flexibility, but the techniques which are needed to multiplex, compress and 
encrypt the signals require the reverse process to be embodied in decoders (often 
referred to as set top boxes). Without agreement on such systems and their 
common implementation, the compatibility may be jeopardized and markets 
segmented. On the other side the market could determine the best solution 
amongst competing specifications. The work done by ETSI and CENELEC, 
following detailed input from the European Digital Video Broadcasting Group 
(DVB) and with the cooperation of an industrial consortium known as DAVIC, 
has led to the preparation of standards which are expected to provide a suitable 
technical base to support the digital distribution of audiovisual programmes all 
over Europe, with a reasonable hope for world-wide compatibility. It remains to 
be seen if the common implementation of such standards in set top boxes can be 
quickly achieved with the help of all economic actors. The importance of the 
stake explains the interest of the Community to ensure equality of access and 
interoperation of systems. 
19. The role of demonstration and trial projects, which are significant in areas outside 
Community funded RED, or which are a more market-oriented complement to it, 
is to verify that new specifications lead to working equipment, to minimise risks 
by sharing the experience to be gained by testing prototypes, and to help remove 
barriers to the acceptance of information technology products in business. It is not 
the aim of demonstration projects to replace market dynamics or to favour 
specific solutions. Without creating unjustified expectations, they nonetheless 
have a role in promoting standardization and the use of new products in certain 
niche markets, in sectors reflecting social needs and in areas where there may be 
lack of economic interest. 
So far, pilot projects have been launched aimed at identifying user and supplier 
needs for standardization. Feedback from these projects has already provided 
valuable pointers for future lines of action in ICT standardization6. In view of the 
encouraging results, it is planned to continue and extend this activity. An open 
call for proposals is planned for publication in the third quarter of 1996 for a 
follow-up phase of initiatives. This will address the domains of multimedia 
systems, electronic commerce, teleworking, and health-care networks. 
20. The public authorities in Europe can act to improve the situation by promoting 
activities to develop awareness of standardized ICT products and services. 
Suitable means are communication and demonstration actions such as workshops. 
Action should be directed towards other (that is, non-ICT) sectors of industry and 
to associations of individual users, consumers, workers and those with special 
needs. Experience shows that action is necessary to bring to the attention of 
industrial management - preferably at board level - the role and importance of 
ICT technical specifications and specifications as instruments for the 
improvement of competitiveness. Of particular importance are measures in favour 
of small and medium sized enterprises. 
Examples of projects are given in Annex A, part 3. 
8 
2. Promoting new technical solutions. 
21. Standardization needs to be based on sound applied science and research results 
can find a practical implementation in the market by technical specifications. This 
is in particular true for ICT. Policy should therefore be directed towards more 
closely associating standardization with the process of research and development 
and vice versa. To wait until research programmes have reached their conclusion 
before considering standardization or examination of existing technical 
specifications may result in long delays and additional costs. Experience shows 
that standards emerging from co-operative research have a higher rate of success 
in international consensus building. Furthermore, RTD projects can help to 
overcome a possible barrier to proper standardization. The potential commercial 
gains for a limited number of companies to undertake standardization are often 
not large enough to be justifiable from their own individual perspective, even if 
for the market as a whole such a development would be beneficial. 
In addition, RTD projects in ICT can contribute to the competitiveness of 
Fluropean industries on a global scale if the need for standardization is recognised 
at an early stage. This contributes to the likelihood that the defined technical 
specifications will be developed faster and will get leverage on the global market 
and in world-wide fora. However, it is essential that the technical specifications 
can be shown to work and are acceptable to the market, and that European 
industry is well represented in the international fora7. 
3. Protecting the public interest 
22. Market instruments are not always sufficient on their own to extend the benefits 
of the Information Society to all the elements that make up society. Many groups 
of citizens or companies are likely to benefit from participation in it, but their 
specific interests, e.g. privacy, or special needs of groups of citizens like the 
disabled and elderly, may not be sufficiently taken into consideration in a process 
based exclusively on commercial considerations. 
In order to safeguard the public interest, such as the interoperability of decoders, 
or to meet their own requirements, such as the exchange of information and the 
security of messages, the Community has to monitor developments in 
standardization and to encourage research projects to include standardization 
development wherever appropriate. If there is a need, they can use their influence 
as customers or promote standardization by organising trial or demonstration 
projects, or by drawing up mandates addressed to the European standards 
organisations. Where public interests are at stake, the ultimate solution, in cases 
where no satisfactory consensus exists, consists of regulatory measures, adopted 
in conformity with the common regulatory principles promoted under the WTO. 
23. The Commission has the possibility of promoting standards in areas where the 
European Union wishes to see their development, by the medium of mandates 
addressed to the European standards organizations. Mandates are an instrument 
Examples of Community funded R I'D projects (Fourth Framework Programme) related to ICT 
are given in Annex A, part 1. Examples ol demonstration projects are given in Annex A, part 2. 
9 
that should be handled with care as a means of promoting the public interest. 
Provided that they identify the incentives for the market to deal with the request 
they constitute a valuable tool for the development of standards for the 
Information Society and formal indication to the standards organizations of the 
Community's and Member States' standardization priorities. Mandates may also 
be given as an instrument to call for the involvement of appropriate groups, such 
as consortia and professional and end-user groups, in the standardizing process. 
4. Reinforcing international cooperation. 
24. The information and communications technologies market is a global one, and 
international cooperation will serve to assist a co-operative development of an 
integrated world market which will be in accordance with the principles of the 
WTO. European suppliers and manufacturers must have an opportunity to 
participate fully in the commercial opportunities offered by the Information 
Society at the world level. Implementation of a policy based on the principles 
adopted by the G7 meeting in Brussels in 1995 on this subject is important to 
establish the global dimension of the Information Society, and to keep Europe 
integrated into the rest of the world. 
25. In view of this global dimension, the Commission has proposed the organisation 
of a world-wide Conference that will follow up the conclusions of the G7 meeting 
in Brussels in February 1995 on the Global Information Society. This conference, 
to be held in 1997, will bring together users, standardizes and public authorities. 
It will review progress made so far, identify needs for further work and build 
consensus on future actions. Together with the G7 partners, the Commission will 
take steps to stimulate world-wide cooperation to develop a global architecture, 
global interoperability rules and compatibility properties for the different parts of 
the Global Information Interface. For this, the G7 pilot project themes8 
established in February 1995 are an important tool. 
26. As regards international openness, the Community is fully committed to the WTO 
agreements. It is endeavouring to bring negotiations on the overall basic 
telecommunications service sector to a successful conclusion. These conclusions 
provide a unique opportunity to obtain a progressive liberalisation of worldwide 
telecommunications markets with a correlative improvement of access to third 
countries. 
27. In relation to the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC), the European 
Commission will continue to provide advice in relation to regulatory and 
standardization aspects of telecommunications, in order to facilitate the process of 
liberalisation and harmonization in the sector. Through the steering committee of 
the PHARE, multi-country telecommunications programmes, it will urge all 
CEECs to participate in the relevant PHARE projects planned, such as the ones 
on cost based tariff tools, on regulatory authorities, type approval and licensings. 
Theme I: (ilobal Inventory; II: Global Interoperability for Broad-Band Networks; ill: Cross 
cultural education and training; IV: Electronic Libraries (Bibliotheca Universalis); V: Electronic 
Museums and Galleries; V!: Environment and Natural Resources Management; VII: Global 
Emergency Management; VIII. Global Healthcare Applications; IX. Government Online; X: 
(ilobal Marketplace forSMEs; XI: Maritime information Systems. 
10 
At the same time, CEEC governments will need to take, as soon as practicable, 
the measures necessary for the adaptation of telecommunications regulations in 
particular in the field of conformity assessment procedures for equipment and 
mutual recognition of their conformity, as well as licensing regimes. Furthermore, 
in view of their pre-accession strategies, the CEEC will need to establish the 
independence of their standardization organisations and to support their 
integration into the European standardization system. 
28. European industry and standards organisations have a good record in participating 
in the ICT work of the international standards organisations and in transposing the 
results. The Commission encourages a stronger participation of European industry 
in global consortia developing standards and expects that Europe's trading 
partners will also match its commitment to international work and in particular 
will contribute to and adopt international standards in ICT. 
IV. THE POSITION OF PUBLIC :LY AVAILABLE SPECIFICATIONS IN COMMUNITY LAW 
1. Technical specifications and the New Approach 
29. Technical specifications elaborated by consortia do not have the status of 
standards, as defined by Community law, and in particular Directive 83/189. The 
question has, however, been raised of whether technical specifications which can 
be qualified as publicly available, can be assimilated to standards, and whether 
they can therefore fulfill a role in Community policies, where reference is made to 
standards. At the same time, the question arises of the position that should be 
adopted if the formal standardization mechanisms cannot present the appropriate 
technical specifications at the right time. Finally, there is the problem of whether 
notifications of new draft technical regulations under the terms of Directive 
83/189/EEC can be challenged on the basis of the existence of a PAS . Since 
different legal and policy instruments issued by the European Union refer to 
standards in different ways and with different implications, it is appropriate to 
deal with them case by case. 
30. The New Approach Directives concern requirements of public interest, such as 
health and safety or other public interests such as interoperability. Harmonized 
standards provide a legally binding presumption of conformity with the 
requirements of the relevant Directives. Other means of demonstrating 
compliance with the requirements are available to economic operators on their 
own initiative. Therefore, the Commission considers that the consensus basis 
presented by European standardization, expressed through votes organized by the 
national standards institutes, is indispensable. Given the advantages conferred 
upon the use of standards, the New Approach contains an incentive for the market 
to elaborate and use formal European standards. For these reasons, in the New 
Approach, it is not appropriate to foresee a specific role for PAS similar to that of 
<> All of what follows is intended, in the present Communication, to refer exclusively to policies for 
the development of the Information Society. However, much of its conclusions can to a certain 
extent be extended to cover the general case, and it is expected that the question of the acceptance 
of publicly available specifications in Community policy will be raised in a broader context. 
V\ 
standards with the same conditions of application. Among the New Approach 
Directives, only the Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive has 
major significance for the Information Society. In its present version, this 
Directive refers to common technical regulations (CTRs), providing the necessary 
harmonization of a binding nature. In the near future, a new proposal to amend 
this Directive will foresee a wider role for formal European standards and 
envisages the selection of technologies - perhaps specified in PAS - by the public 
authorities. 
2. Enhancing technical specifications for public procurement. 
31. In Public Procurement, Community directives aim in the first place at achieving 
transparency in calls for tender on technical specifications and at avoiding the 
discrimination that might occur if only national or custom specifications were 
used. They introduce a hierarchy of documents to which authorities are obliged to 
refer in calls for tender, i.e., European standards, then international standards, 
then national standards. Unlike the New Approach, the legal framework does not 
contain an incentive to elaborate standards. Only where the market itself 
perceives an interest in opening-up markets will real progress be made. 
32. Provided that some form of recognition by the public authorities can be defined, 
of normative resources or simply of documents, in particular by declaring - for the 
purposes of public procurement - specific documents to be equivalent to 
standards, the scope of technical specifications to which reference has to be made 
by procurement entities could be enlarged. A procedure to this end might be 
embedded in Directive 83/189, involving the Commission and the Member 
States. In such conditions, publicly available specifications may be the 
appropriate instrument, provided that their originators meet as a minimum the 
conditions outlined in point 4. 
3. Interoperability and applications for use by authorities 
33. In most cases, the market and its standardizing mechanisms for information and 
communication technology, products and services function well. In some cases, 
however, one can observe failures of the standardization process, such as inability 
to deliver the appropriate standards in due lime, or market failures, in which the 
appropriate products are not available to the customer or where customers are 
locked into proprietary specifications. 
The public authorities have a responsibility with respect to public interests, such 
as ensuring sufficient interoperability between systems; in other cases they need 
common specifications in order to meet their own specific requirements, e.g., for 
cooperation between administrations. If formal standardization is not capable of 
providing the appropriate solutions to meet such needs, even with the support of 
the measures outlined above, then the European Union will be obliged to take 
administrative action. To this end, a procedure should be created which allows a 
call for technology, contained in documents other than standards. This procedure 
might be based on a new instrument to be created within the context of Directive 
83/189, or within the context of specific Directives, in the latter case limited to 
their respective fields of application. This procedure would involve the Member 
States. 
12 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 
Standards determine the technology that will implement the Information Society, and 
consequently the way economic players, users and administrations will benefit from it. 
This Communication examines how, in the light of the characteristics of the Information 
and Communications Technology (ICT) market and of standardization in ICT, the best 
possible conditions can be created for the drawing up of standards needed for the 
implementation of the Global Information Society, and to indicate by what means the 
Community intends to promote those aspects for which it has a particular responsibility. 
Standardization in ICT shows particular features that arise from the nature of the ICT 
market. Standards have to follow the life-cycles of products or services, but since ICT 
product cycle times are short and becoming shorter, standards adopted following 
traditional procedures often prove inappropriate because of the lengthy procedures 
involved in their elaboration. Therefore, there has been a tendency to develop de facto 
standards as a complement to formal standards, formal standards should be directed to 
those areas that need a broad consensus, where the market sees it as necessary, for 
example, where specifications should form a lasting basis, or should become established 
as international standards. 
European policy for the Global Information Society is aimed at improving global 
competitiveness, through the identification and the removal of regulatory obstacles, 
through their own intervention in the market, through research and demonstration 
actions, and through the promotion of new technical solutions. Since the Information 
Society is global, European authorities are committed to the promotion of the global 
integration of ICT standardization, and to promotion of its benefits to the rest of Europe. 
In addition, the Community has a specific role in protecting the public interest, for 
example, the needs of the elderly and disabled. 
Against this background: 
The Information Society is market driven. The main role in the development of 
specifications and standards in this domain is therefore for market operators. 
The Commission will investigate the existence of standards-related obstacles to 
the creation of new ICT-based services, in particular electronic commerce. 
Where necessary, it will take steps to eliminate them. 
The Member States should refrain from adopting new regulations that will 
generate new technical barriers stemming from the development of divergent 
technical specifications and standards in the area oflhc Information Society. 
The European standards organisations are invited to promote the possibilities of 
the adoption of specifications that originate outside their formal structures. They 
should examine the possibility of adopting PAS. 
Co-operation in standardization between the regional and international standards 
organisations is encouraged. 
13 
The Commission underlines the importance of the forthcoming World-wide 
Conference on Standardization and the Global Information Society, which will 
follow up the conclusions of the G7 meeting in February 1995 and which will 
review progress and identify needs for further work in standardization for the 
Global Information Society. 
The Commission will protect competition and will encourage open and non­
discriminatory specifications and standards for new services and ICT 
applications. 
The Commission stresses the importance of RTD and demonstration to the 
development and implementation of technical specifications and standards, at the 
European and international levels. 
The Commission will bring forward proposals for the use, where appropriate, of 
PAS or de facto standards in Community law, such as public procurement and 
interoperability. 
14 
ANNEX A 
Research and Technological Development and Demonstration 
Part 1: Examples of ICT-related actions under the Fourth Framework 
Programme 
The Fourth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (RTD) 
comprises a series of specific programmes of major importance for European 
competitiveness and the Information Society. 
As regards Information Technology, the Information Technologies Programme (ESPRIT) 
is designed to help Europe's industries gain competitive advantage by focusing on the 
needs of users. Particular attention is given to fostering collaboration between users and 
suppliers. To this end, ESPRIT supports a broad-based RTD environment, in which RTD 
is complemented by measures to raise awareness, and to facilitate access to technologies. 
Where necessary, ESPRIT contributes to, and stimulates standardization initiatives. 
Examples of such current initiatives are: 
An action undertaken to secure global interoperability and European 
competitiveness in the Global Information Society is the pilot project 
WEBCORE, addressing the development of the World-Wide Web (WWW) based 
on the cross-platform HTML standard. The WWW allows users access from 
different sources to information in a uniform way via networks. In WEBCORE 
standards in particular on text transfer (HTTP), security and the generation and 
access of documents are developed. The WWW Consortium (W3C) established in 
this project comprises European, US and Japanese organisations, enabling a 
continuing European contribution to a technology originally developed in Europe. 
The closely related accompanying measure W3UserNet aims to include users, in 
particular SMEs into the development of the WWW and its standards. 
IMPRIMATUR (Intellectual Multimedia Property Rights Model and terminology 
for Universal Reference) and the related project, COPEARMS (Co-ordinating 
Project for Electronic Authors Right Management Systems) have the objective of 
developing technology and consensus building at the global level for securing 
Intellectual Property Rights and the development of related payment systems in 
the Information Society in a "privacy-friendly" way, in cooperation with partners 
from the US and Japan who are involved in order to ensure that a globally 
interoperable system is developed. 
The aim of the P (Intelligent Information Interfaces) initiative is to make 
interaction with information an effortless task for the broad population of non-
specialist users. It is a response to the rapidly growing amounts of information 
being made available in our information society, for which access and 
management is still difficult and time consuming. The initiative centres around 
research to create intelligent information interfaces that can be used naturally and 
intuitively, flexibly spanning across different devices, applications and media. 
The objective of the Open Microprocessor Initiative (OMI) is to identify and take 
account of technological advantages and trends in the market such as the move to 
greater on-chip systems integration, the need for simpler architectures, the wish to 
avoid redesign through portability and the need for easy upgrading. OMI aims to 
converge with accepted technology and technical specifications rather than 
compete with them, and to help Europe build critical mass by recognising and 
consolidating its strength. 
The STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product Data) has the objective of 
improving the efficiency and effectiveness of information exchange in all kind of 
manufacturing processes. It is a highly successful global technical specifications 
resulting from work initiated in former RTD Framework Programmes. 
The CAFE (Conditional Access For Europe) project has the objective of 
designing and demonstrating an electronic means of payment; an "electronic 
wallet". The CAFE specification is a new European technical specifications for 
electronic payment systems; the terminals are compatible with all wallets and 
clearing systems designed to meet the specification. The terminals are operated by 
the customer inserting a smart card, containing the electronic cash. Also remote 
operation is possible. This high security system is protected by tamper-proof 
devices and sophisticated security algorithms. Presently the concept is being 
tested on premises of the European Commission. 
Linking biological databases is a project that proposed the development of a pilot 
experience aiming to test the applicability of the Common Object Broker 
Architecture (COBA) to the Biomedical field. COBA is an emerging technical 
specifications providing a coherent framework in which distributed applications 
can interoperate. Future development in cancer and AIDS research, vaccine 
development and agronomical improvement of farm animals, to cite only a few 
examples, will greatly depend on the ability to integrate vast amounts of diverse 
biological information sources. COBA is a major step in this direction. 
As regards telecommunications technology, the Advanced Communications 
Technologies and Services (ACTS) Programme under the Fourth Framework Programme 
covers the broad spectrum of convergent communications from advanced 
telecommunications networking to multi-media and digital audio-visual communications. 
Its approach enables standardization cycles to be accelerated, by having projects validate 
their concepts and technical specifications in field trials involving users. 
Through concertation mechanisms, participants in ACTS projects collaborate wherever-
appropriate on common trials or common specifications. The specifications that emerge 
from this process are then supported in the standardization bodies by the organisations 
involved in the ACTS projects. 
ACTS projects are designed to develop common models describing the roles and 
interfaces of each category of operator, service provider and user. Guidelines in the 
context of advanced communications are being devised at the level of technology, 
li 
services/applications, and business/practices. All the ACTS projects are expected to 
contribute to some extent to formal standardization or to ad hoc fora. Some ACTS 
projects have been recognised by a world-wide initiative called Telecommunications 
Information Networking Architecture .Consortium (TIN AC). 
Part 2: Examples of ICT-related demonstration actions under the Fourth 
Framework Programme 
Demonstration of technologies that result from RTD is an important element under the 
Fourth Framework Programme. The Telematics Applications Programme covers, inter 
alia, the following areas: 
The "Telematics Applications for Health Care" sector was intended to contribute 
during its AIM (Advanced Informatics in Medicine) exploratory action phase to 
the establishment of European standardization on health informatics standards. 
The "Directory of the Iiuropean Standardisation Requirements and Programme 
for the Development of Standards" is a comprehensive and detailed action plan, 
including research projects previously undertaken under the AIM initiative and its 
successor, i.e. Telematics Applications for Health Care: 
• The aim o\' the BEAM (Biomedical Technology Assessment and 
Management) was to develop information and coding related to medical 
technology. It led to a final pre-standard framework document that is 
intended for use by organisations involved in the development and 
maintenance of nomenclatures and coding systems for medical devices, 
and by designers of databases or information systems including medical 
devices. 
• The objective of the OEDIPE (Open European Data Interchange and 
Processing for Computerised Electrocardiography) project on open data 
interchange and processing of ECG data is to demonstrate and promote 
the SCP-ECG (Standards Communication Protocol for ECG) by setting up 
demonstrators for cart-to-host and host-to-host data interchange and by 
developing an experimental European network of distributed cooperative 
databases for the follow-up of selected heart diseased populations. 
The "Telematics Applications for Transport" sector contributed during its DRIVE 
phase to validation and demonstration of RDS-TMC (Radio Data Systems-Traffic 
Message Channel) traffic information. In cooperation with CEN which shares the 
Transport Telematics standardization activities with ISO, standards have been 
elaborated on location referencing rules (RDS-TMC), A_LERT-C event list 
(Advice problem Location for European Road Traffic) and ALERT-C protocol 
for message coding and management. Other examples include Road Traffic Data 
elaboration, storage and distribution. Advanced traffic information services are 
now part of the priorities for Trans-European Networks for transport, and most 
European countries will introduce RDS-TMC by 1998. 
The "Telematics Applications for Disabled and Elderly" sector - previously the 
Technology Initiative for the Disabled and Elderly (TIDE) - has launched also a 
iii 
number of significant actions and projects in relation to pre-standardization work 
in assistive and rehabilitation technologies. Preliminary studies undertaken under 
TIDE (e.g. the HEART project) resulted in planning European standardization 
activities in this area. 
ADLIB (Advanced Database Linkages in Biotechnology) has brought together the 
major European scientific publishers, biological information provides and users to 
test the technical feasibility of linking scientific literature database and factual 
databands (DNA, genomes, molecules). This requires the implementation of the 
CCDB data model, which is the result of a previous project, as well as the SRS 
protocol, developed under a "BIOMED" project, allowing different databases to 
link information. ADLIB is a perfect example of how previous research efforts 
with different origins (academy, industry) crystallizes in a product oriented, close 
to market project. 
Part 3: Examples of demonstration and trial projects complementary to the 
Fourth Framework Programme 
As examples of Community action in demonstration and trial projects complementary to 
the Fourth Framework Programme, the following can be mentioned: 
A programme to provide multimedia information services to citizens by city 
administrations in partnership with local industry, on the basis of a common 
platform employing a mixture of existing and novel technical specifications. 
(EUKIOSK) 
The development of requirements for the architecture of a universal set-top unit 
(the device which forms the bridge between data streams from broadcast, cable, or 
telecom sources and the screen in the home). The European Broadcasting Union. 
(UNITEL) 
A project that aims at the development of visualisation suites for images produced 
by the most recent medical imaging techniques; it will develop standard 
techniques for fusing and processing images from multiple sources and presenting 
3-D models to the specialist. (EUROMED) 
Under the policy of 'Trans-European Networks for transport, the Community 
supports standardization work in Euroconlrol, together with studies on 
architecture and data modelling as well as demonstration projects for improving 
air traffic management system capacity. 
finally, education and training establishments have a contribution to make to the 
Information Society, and actions such as the Communities Socrates and Leonardo 
Programmes can help to validate ICT technical specifications associated with 
distance learning 
IV 
ANNEX B 
Glossary of Abbreviations 
Note: This glossary includes all abbreviations regularly used in the text of this 
Communication. Titles of Individual Research and Demonstrations 
Programmes, which, where they are known by acronyms rather than titles, 
are explained in the text, and are not included in the list. 
CEEC 
CEN 
CENELEC 
CTRs 
ED! 
EN 
EPHOS 
ETSI 
EWOS 
ICT 
IDA 
I EC 
IPR 
ISO 
JTC1 
PAS 
PHARE 
RTD 
SME 
WTO Central and Eastern European Countries 
European Committee for Standardization 
European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization 
Common Technical Regulations 
Electronic Data Interchange 
European Standard 
European Procurement Handbook for Open Systems 
European Telecommunications Standards Institute 
European Workshop on Open Systems 
Information and Communications Technology 
Interchange of Data between Administrations 
International Electrotechnical Commission 
Intellectual Property Rights 
International Organisation for Standardization 
ISO-IEC Joint Technical Committee N°l 
Publicly Available Specification 
Poland and Hungary: Aid for Economic Restructuring 
Research and Technological Development 
Small and Medium Sized Enterprises 
World Trade Organisation 

ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(96) 359 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN 16 15 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-96-410-EN-C 
ISBN 92-78-07810-7 
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 
L-2985 Luxembourg