EU Commission plans to continue tech standardisation work with US

The European Commission will continue its standardisation work with the United States on a technical level, EU officials have told member states during a telecom council working group, according to minutes obtained by Euronews.

The working group set up under the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) – a forum between the two regions to coordinate common efforts on trade and technology policy – will go on, but whether there is “political will” to continue the TTC in light of this week’s US election result, “remains to be seen”, the minutes said.

Several delegations including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Poland and Portugal are said to be concerned about the future cooperation with the US on digital standards now that Republican Donald Trump will take office on 20 January replacing Democrat Joe Biden, according to the minutes. 

The TTC meetings started under the Von der Leyen Commission and Biden administration in 2021 with the aim to improve ties between the two regions, but both the EU and US went to the polls this year, making the future of the forum uncertain.

On artificial intelligence, the TTC would facilitate “regular discussions” via a cooperation agreement between the European AI Office and the US AI Safety Institute, including work towards the development of a common framework for evaluating generative AI models.

Poland, which will chair the EU ministerial meetings in the first half of next year, will put the EU-US cooperation on standards on the agenda, the document said.

During yesterday’s meeting officials from standardisation organisation CEN-CELENEC and ETSI gave presentations about standardisation requests. The Commission asked the two organisations in May last year to prepare the underlying standards for the industry.