22OCT

EU aims to write standards in four years

2 min read

17:24UTC

The Commission proposed a new Standardisation Regulation on 6 October to speed up European standards, and Teresa Ribera said chip and AI IPCEIs are in preparation.

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Key takeaway

Brussels wants standards in four years and new chip and AI IPCEIs, if capitals pay.

The European Commission proposed a new EU Standardisation Regulation on 6 October to replace Regulation 1025/2012, and says it cuts the average time to develop a European standard from six years to four⁠¹. The text sets clearer deadlines for requested standards, allows wider use of external technical specifications under conditions, and creates an Expert Centre on European Standardisation.

On 12 October Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera, who runs competition policy, told a BusinessEurope event that IPCEIs (Important Projects of Common European Interest, the EU's route for joint state-aid projects) in advanced semiconductor technologies and AI are in preparation with member states⁠². Ribera said work is also under way on seven further potential projects, including one on compute infrastructure. The 11 IPCEIs approved since 2018 cover €38bn of public funding, and Ribera warned that "Member States must honour their commitments, including delivering the funding they have pledged".

A compute IPCEI would add subsidy to a gap that Bruegel, in September, blamed on permitting delays rather than money.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Standards are agreed technical rules, such as the shape of a plug or how to test a product's safety. In Europe, many laws require products to meet standards written by expert bodies. The European Commission wants to speed up how these standards are made, from about six years to four. It has proposed a new law to do that. Teresa Ribera is the Commission's competition chief. She oversees IPCEIs, schemes that let several EU governments subsidise one big project together. She said new ones for chips and AI are being prepared and warned governments to pay what they promised.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

EU product law increasingly depends on standards it does not write. A regulation sets the duty, and private standards bodies decide how compliance is measured, so any delay in the bodies delays the law.

IPCEIs (Important Projects of Common European Interest) exist because EU state-aid rules otherwise bar large national subsidies. The tool lets several member states fund one industrial project together under Commission approval.

Ribera's warning on pledges points at the weak link: the Commission approves the aid, but each government decides whether and when to pay it.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Faster standards would shorten the gap between an EU law's adoption and companies' ability to show compliance.
Long term · Suggested
Risk
Non-EU firms and governments may contest wider Commission-chosen specifications as trade barriers.
Medium term · Suggested
Opportunity
Chips and AI IPCEIs would give member states an approved route to subsidise those sectors jointly.
Medium term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources from Belgium

Belgium×2

Primary parallel: The harmonised standards for the AI Act, drafted by the CEN-CENELEC joint technical committee JTC 21, missed their original 2025 target. Companies faced legal obligations with no agreed technical method of meeting them, the delay the new regulation is meant to prevent.

Counter-parallel: The GSM mobile standard, agreed in Europe in 1987 and carried forward by ETSI from 1988, became the global norm without any Commission fallback powers. A slow, industry-led European process then produced the world's dominant standard.

The €38bn across 11 IPCEIs averages about €3.5bn of public money per project. Chips and AI IPCEIs would add to that total, alongside seven further candidate projects including compute infrastructure.

Ribera's warning targets delivery. Pledged money that governments pay late leaves companies holding approved projects without the cash, which slows construction and lets non-EU rivals, funded faster at home, keep their lead.

Consensus view: the Commission's case is speed: clearer deadlines, an Expert Centre on European Standardisation and fallback technical specifications are meant to stop EU laws waiting years for the standards that make them work. Its own estimate puts average development time at four years instead of six.

Counter-view: US industry groups objected when the EU's 2022 amendment to the standardisation law limited key votes in European standards bodies to EU and EEA national members. Wider use of Commission-chosen specifications gives non-EU firms, which work mainly through global bodies such as ISO, even less say over rules they must meet to sell in Europe.

Key tension: Whether faster standards come from a quicker consensus process or from the Commission writing specifications itself when industry committees run late.

Sources:European Commission·European Commission

Mentions:European Commission →Teresa Ribera →BusinessEurope →Bruegel →

First Reported In

Update #17 · EU questions AI labs over loss of control

European Commission· 22 Oct 2026

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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.