For those of you who followed my posts on the European standardisation reform and the legal package presented almost exactly a year ago by the European Commission there is great news: The IMCO committee of the European parliament published just yesterday the so called four column document showing the compromise agreement that was reached in the trilogue negotiations between the European Council, the European Parliament and the Commission.
What is most important for ICT is Recitals 20 - 21, Chapter IV and Annex II. While there had been some debate about the who should vote on recognising ICT specifications from global fora/consortia - whether EU comitology rules and the examination procedure should be applied - the final agreement reached is very good. It goes for a lean process including necessary checks and balances by requiring consultation of the ICT multi-stakholder Platform established by the Commission and of the Committee set up by the corresponding act of Union harmonisation legislation.
With this excellent outcome of the legislative process the way is now open for Europe to make use of innovative IT technologies standardised in global fora and consortia. These will complement the European Standards developed by the European Standardisation Organisations. So the grounds are being laid for increasing the use of standards and specifications in public procurement in order to further promote interoperability and reduce lock-in situations.
