On 3^rd March, the European Commission published the 2017 Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation. A Rolling Plan is the result of the dialogue between policy and standardisation makers, aimed at reaching the EU goals set for this year in the field of information and communication technologies. In practice, it establishes the requirements for ICT standardisation in the form of actions and provides a follow-up mechanism for these actions, guiding the cooperation between standardisation bodies and industries.

The link with legislation and policy is crucial because ICT standards convey important technological requirements on privacy, security and accessibility. Having the right ICT standards supports growth because it allows European businesses to expand their offer beyond national borders and enables industry to optimise its production system by interconnecting equipment and exploiting diverse data sources.

The 2017 Plan is organised around four thematic areas: key enablers and security, societal challenges, innovation for the single market and sustainable growth. More in detail, it identifies five Standardisation priorities for the Digital Single Market: 5G, cloud, cybersecurity, big data and internet of things (IoT). In addition, it defines a set of horizontal technologies for which innovation is urged, such as eHealth, intelligent transport systems, smart energy and advanced manufacturing.

Compared to the 2016 edition, the 2017 Rolling Plan includes the following new domains: 5G, FinTech, Building information modelling (BIM) and Common information sharing environment (CISE) for the EU maritime domain.