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[To Eurosmart members only]
ITU standards: concerns regarding the growing influence of state-controlled companies
At the beginning of this year, three German MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) sent a written question to the European Commission. Their question relates to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU); a UN body specialised in ICT standardisation.
These three MEPs are:
- Angelika Niebler, former rapporteur for the Cybersecurity Act and now rapporteur for the Data Governance Act;
-Andreas Schwab, former rapporteur for NIS 1 and now rapporteur for the Digital Markets Act;
-Stefan Berger, rapporteur for the Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets.
The MEPs note that “there is currently a sense that state-controlled companies are becoming heavily involved in the ITU, which is causing the influence of the EU and of European companies in international standardisation to be reduced. This gives cause for concern”. They further observe that recently the European members narrowly succeeded in preventing the adoption of the China Telecom’s suggestion for a new standard on face recognition in the area of public security and services.
The three MEPs ask what the Commission plans on doing to encourage EU companies to engage in international standardisation “in line with European perceptions”.
Commissioner Thierry Breton answered on 12 July. Thierry Breton explains that the full membership of the ITU is reserved for sovereign States. The EU can only be a “sector member” (similar to observer status), along with more than 270 other, mostly private, entities. Thierry Breton concludes that the EU can mostly exert its influence through the Member States, “acting jointly in the interest of the EU”.
Thierry Breton recognises that “lately, certain ITU members are pushing for standards incompatible with EU values and strategic interests”. He underlines that the EU has cooperated with like-minded partners to counteract theses initiatives and was successful on the Internet Protocol and facial recognition standards.
The Commissioner further explains that the European Commission will present its strategy on standardisation. The European Commission encourages private actors to participate in standardisation bodies, such as ITU, ETSI, IEE, and the Internet Engineering Task Force (only these organisations were mentioned in the reply). The European Commission is providing financial support to European experts and has set up an observatory for ICT standardisation to inform stakeholders about ongoing activities.
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