In a study ordered by the EC to collect from the major standardisation stakeholders their experience and views on the EU policy arena and at the international level, Eurosmart underlines that the multiplicity of standards is not a good thing, as they divide the market, generate confusion, adversely impact emergent markets and finally result in less profitable industrial activities due to lack of harmonisation. Common standards are dramatically needed to enable cross-border interoperability and to facilitate the mobility of citizens in EU while responding to a growing need of security and ubiquitous communication capabilities. Eurosmart invites the European Commission to play a leading role for the promotion of common accreditation processes and the mutual recognition of certification practices between Member States by: – Supporting more explicitly the acceptance of common standards by Member States. The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) must be clearly identified as the preferential European standards body acting under EC supervision; – Further communicating on the European standardisation activities, especially to non-EU standards bodies; – Enhancing its relationships with the official standards bodies and its role of coordination between governments and the industry; – Making sure that European requirements for standards align with the best practices in terms of functionality, performance and quality. Eurosmart acknowledges that the CEN TC/224, the specific technical committee of the CEN working on personal identification and electronic signature, has proved its ability to generate consensus and to produce the series of European standards needed to support the issuance and operation of new identification electronic documents. In the future, the TC/224 will have to work on common standards for crucial topics such as the Single European Payment Area (SEPA), eGovernment services, telecoms (roaming), biometrics, eInclusion, etc. florence.gras@eurosmart.com www.eurosmart.com