Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation 2026: What's new?

As every year, the European Commission and the Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) reviewed and updated all chapters of the Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation. The Rolling Plan is part of the EU Standardisation Strategy. It addresses technology areas in need of ICT standards and explores the role that standards and technical specifications can play in achieving the policy objectives. It reaches out to the ESOs, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI and the global standard development organisations that can respond to the proposed actions and support the respective policy objectives with standardisation deliverables. The Commission publishes the Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation to consolidate the different ICT standardisation needs and activities in support of EU policies into a single document. The Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation is a working document, complementary to the Annual Union Work Programme, formal document adopted by the Commission that identifies the strategic priorities of standardisation.

What's new in 2026?

The Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation 2026 identifies an estimated 260 actions grouped into 40 technological or application domains under foundational drivers and four thematic areas: key enablers, societal challenges, innovation for the digital single market and sustainable growth. Particular prominence is given to two horizontal “foundational drivers” under section 3.0, namely updated chapters on data economy and cybersecurity. These are all technology areas for standardisation that cut across the spectrum of standards-making, and may need to be referenced by many, if not most, specific activities. Challenges arise at every step of digitalisation and policy makers need to be fully aware that ICT standardisation is the tool to tackle them effectively.

The 2026 edition includes a number of substantial revisions. There are three new chapters added Trusted Secure Chips (3.1.12), Internet (3.1.13) and Trust in Media (3.2.9), and the chapter on e-Privacy (3.2.10) was moved into section 3.2 (societal challenges). The chapters on Data Economy (3.0.1) and Data Interoperability (3.1.3) were extensively revised and aligned with progress on the EU Data. The chapter on Electronic Identification and trust services including e-signatures (3.1.5) has been extensively revised in line with the new. Other chapters that underwent substantial revisions were Cybersecurity / Network and Information Security (3.0.2), eProcurement (3.3.1), eInvoicing (3.3.2) and Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds (3.3.7).

The Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation provides a unique bridge between EU policies, implementation and standardisation activities. This helps to increase convergence of standards makers’ efforts towards achieving EU policy goals. This document is the result of an annual dialogue involving a wide-range of interested parties. Standardisation actions identified in this document to support EU policies and their implementation are complementary to other instruments. The Rolling Plan attempts to list all known areas where ICT standardisation could support EU policy objectives. It also details the requirements for ICT standardisation, translates them into actions and provides a follow-up mechanism for the actions.