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Die Bundesanwaltschaft hat zwei Schweizer wegen qualifizierter Geldwäscherei angeklagt. Sie sollen 34 Millionen Euro, eine Million Franken und 830 Kilogramm Gold illegal verschoben haben. Die Beschuldigten sind geständig.

In Giswil OW stürzte eine junge Frau mit ihrem Landwirtschaftsfahrzeug 90 Meter in die Tiefe und wurde lebensbedrohlich verletzt. Der Unfall wird von der Kantonspolizei und Staatsanwaltschaft Obwalden untersucht.

Manch einer in Berlin hatte noch gedacht, dass die Unsicherheit einer erneuten Trump-Präsidentschaft sicherlich die krisengeplagte Ampel-Koalition wieder zusammenschweißen würde. Nun ist das Gegenteil der Fall, mit Folgen für Europa. 

Wissenschaftler haben eine genetische Mutation entdeckt, die für neurologische Symptome bei einem Kind verantwortlich ist. Diese Erkenntnis könnte die Diagnose und Behandlung ähnlicher Fälle weltweit verbessern.

Die 36-jährige Comedian Nicolette Fountaris liegt nach einem Schlaganfall im Krankenhaus. In einem Instagram-Post zeigt sie sich kämpferisch und optimistisch. Trotz der Diagnose bleibt sie humorvoll und betont die Wichtigkeit von Freude und Liebe im Leben.

Galatasaray assistant manager Ismael Garcia Gomez admits even they were taken by surprise when the opportunity arose to sign Victor Osimhen on loan from Napoli.

Galatasaray assistant manager Ismael Garcia Gomez admits even they were taken by surprise when the opportunity arose to sign Victor Osimhen on loan from Napoli.

A szerdán ismertetett első felmérés szerint a britek többsége nem örül annak, hogy Donald Trump nyerte az amerikai elnökválasztást.

Yann Sommer steht beim Sieg von Inter Mailand gegen Arsenal im Fokus. Nicht nur mit seiner Leistung, sondern auch mit einer heiklen Szene. Diese sorgt bei Mikel Arteta für Ärger.

M. Musk, l'un des partisans les plus visibles du président élu, pourrait désormais jouer un rôle à la Maison-Blanche de M. Trump.

M. Musk, l'un des partisans les plus visibles du président élu, pourrait désormais jouer un rôle à la Maison-Blanche de M. Trump.

M. Musk, l'un des partisans les plus visibles du président élu, pourrait désormais jouer un rôle à la Maison-Blanche de M. Trump.

Das Aufeinandertreffen der EU-Staats- und Regierungschefs ab Donnerstag in Budapest wird vermutlich thematisch von der Wiederwahl von Donald Trump zum US-Präsidenten dominiert. Die angesetzten zwei Tage geben viel Zeit, um über die kommenden Herausforderungen nachzudenken.

Aktivisten der Letzten Generation haben die Fassade der Deutschlandzentrale des Energieunternehmens Total Energies in Berlin mit oranger Farbe besprüht. Mit dieser Protest-Aktion wollen sie auf den geplanten Gasgipfel World LNG im Dezember aufmerksam machen.

Written by Polona Car.

Standards are voluntary guidelines, providing technical specifications for products, processes and services. They ensure a certain level of quality, enable interoperability, boost consumer confidence and remove trade barriers. Laws may prescribe standards as a preferred or mandatory requirement for compliance. In the digital sphere, their strategic importance has made them the focus of geopolitical competition.

Why standards?

Digital standards ensure that the products we use daily, ranging from WiFi routers to mobile phones, comply with prescribed technical specifications. Standards enable users to communicate with each other using digital technologies, safely and at a lower cost, while companies using them can integrate and compete in the global value chain. For instance, established mobile network standards, such as GSM (the Global System for Mobile Communications) and its successor standards (3G, 4G, 5G, …), allow a user to phone any other user around the world, regardless of the type of phone. Standards also enable users to browse the worldwide web, to connect Bluetooth devices and, in the European Union, to use a USB-C charger for any mobile phone.

Standards provide a common language of agreed terms and definitions, they define organisational processes, set metrics for testing and performance, and define quality and safety requirements for products, as well as requirements for compatibility and interoperability. As such, they play an important role in digital industry development, allowing companies to share data and compete on the global markets. By promoting product and service security, building trust in emerging technologies and promoting innovation, they boost competitiveness in the European digital transition. They allow companies to be more efficient, reduce costs and focus their efforts on innovation. Synergies between standardisation, innovation and competitiveness seem to be particularly significant in the digital sector.

Real market needs drive standards, industry therefore plays a key role in their development. Moreover, when combined with patents, such as standard essential patents (SEPs), standards generate royalties supporting innovation. Companies have an interest in competing to transform their patents to widely used standards, as this can lead to a financial virtuous circle. Standards are mostly developed by consensus in recognised, standard-setting organisations (SSOs), according to agreed principles. In addition to SSOs, industry consortia, such as the Blu-ray Disc Association, also create standards, which SSO may later publish (e.g. the PDF format). Some segments of the digital sector, such as software development, require a more open industry-oriented approach to standards development.

EU actors and priorities

The process of developing European standards in support of reaching the goals of the European digital decade takes place through one of the three European standardisation organisations (ESOs), where stakeholders come together to reach a consensus:

• CEN (European Committee for Standardisation), an association of national standardisation bodies,
• CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation), an association of national electro-technical committees, and
• ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute), a standards body dealing with telecommunications, broadcasting and other electronic communications networks and services.

The High-level forum on European standardisation, a Commission expert group formed by representatives from the ESOs, industry, civil society and academia, steers the development of European standards, including for the digital single market. This structure was requested in the European standardisation strategy (ESS), which stressed the importance of standards in supporting innovation, better addressing the EU’s strategic goals and leading on standards-setting to be more competitive at international level.

The EU multi-stakeholder platform on ICT standardisation is a specialised advisory expert group on all matters relating to implementation of ICT standardisation policies. Together with the Commission, the group develops an annual rolling plan for ICT standardisation, highlighting ICT standardisation needs. Standards for artificial intelligence have been high on the agenda in recent years, as well as standardisation for cybersecurity (e.g. to support implementation of the Cyber Resilience Act), data economy and data interoperability (e.g. supporting the European digital identity framework). The plan also looks at standardisation beyond 5G, at edge computing and intelligent transport systems.

Standards for the AI Act
Article 40(2) of the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) oblige the Commission to ‘issue, without undue delay, standardisation requests’ covering requirements for high-risk AI systems, obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models, and obligations of providers of general-purpose AI models with systematic risk. High-risk AI systems or general-purpose AI models that conform to harmonised standards, shall be presumed to be in conformity with the requirements of the AI Act for high-risk AI systems. The Commission’s standardisation request tasked the CEN and CENELEC with delivering the requested standards, including on risk-management systems, quality of data sets, robustness, cybersecurity and transparency, by 30 April 2025. CEN-CENELEC established a Joint Technical Committee for AI and published a work programme, as well as several standards.

International dimension

Standards are instrumental in addressing the challenges and opportunities of digital technologies. Therefore, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization underlines the need for a collaborative process and multi-stakeholder approach in standards development, to circumvent potential monopolies or abuse of dominant market position, and enable equitable digital transformation globally. However, as academics note, international technology standardisation is regarded as a space of geopolitical competition. In addition, the global adoption of digital technologies has intensified competition, especially because SEPs support innovation and benefit royalty holders.

The United Stated (US), China, and the EU have all recently aligned their standardisation policies with their strategic and political objectives. It seems that the US and China are each seeking technological supremacy and have both adopted a hybrid approach, where governments and the private sector cooperate in shaping international standards. According to experts, the EU seems to be seeking a ‘careful equilibrium between competition on the one hand, and continued cooperation with rival states on the other’.

China’s policy shift on standardisation took place in 2021. With its new policy, China dropped its top-down approach for a more collaborative public-private model, similar to the US. 5G standardisation was a key moment for China. Academics note the country ‘began to challenge the regime of international standards which has been dominated by the US and partially by EU and Japan’. China is seeking to expand its influence in existing SSOs, like the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), but is also working to establish its own standardisation system based on its values, mostly with the Belt and Road Initiative.

China’s push for 5G standardisation
Researchers identified China’s push for 5G standardisation as an important shift in its standardisation strategy, as it relied on intellectual property rights produced by Chinese technology firms. China managed to be the first-mover ‘through aggressive investments and strong state support’. As experts note, this is directly visible in Huawei’s presence in the ITU study group on fixed and mobile network protocols. Indeed, Huawei, with government support, has requested the highest number of applications for SEPs for 5G.

The US shifted its standardisation policy in 2023 from a traditional corporate-led approach toward stronger government engagement to counter China’s tech rise. According to experts, the 2023 US National Standards Strategy aims at improving investment, promoting government participation in SSOs, addressing skill shortage and ‘protecting the integrity and inclusivity of current standardization practices’. So far, private consortia like the Internet Engineering Task Force have driven US technological dominance. Experts note these consortia remain leading international SSOs in internet and networking standardisation.

The US and the EU are also trying to counterbalance China’s rising influence in setting critical and emerging technologies’ standards in the framework of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC). The TTC addressed this issue in late 2023 in a mapping exercise that identified common features of digital identities, in the context of emerging technologies standards in support of transatlantic cooperation.

Read this ‘At a glance’ note on ‘How standards support Europe’s digital competitiveness‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Deutschland bekommt seine erste Minderheitsregierung in 40 Jahren, gefolgt von vorgezogenen Neuwahlen. Das stellt die europäische Dynamik, die auf Donald Trumps Sieg folgte, vor Ungewissheiten.

Du bist ein Ski-Fan? Dann ist dieser Ticker der genau richtige Ort für dich. Hier findest du News und Storys rund um den Ski-Weltcup – auf und abseits der Piste.

A key question will be how fast further accession rounds could happen and whether Kos will commit to specific dates.