Europe’s standards paradox

National ambition is weakening the coordination that made Europe a global standards power.

Thumbnail photo by Alex Shuper on Unsplash.

For many, the crisis in Ceuta was seen as the collapse of European unity. Tens of thousands of migrants arrived on the Spanish territory in a single day. Italy said it would suspend its Schengen arrangement with Spain and called for the country’s broader suspension from the zone. Denmark and Finland backed the demand, and the escalation culminated when twenty-two leaders of EU countries signed a letter criticizing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s migration policies for undermining the security of the bloc’s external borders.¹

Reading the comments, I thought: has such a thing as European unity really ever existed?

This reminded me of my own international experience. Often present in speeches and declarations, European alignment usually disappeared the moment a decision had to be made. And where progress seemed within reach, negotiations either dragged on without resolution, or settled into a status quo or a weak compromise. It was not rare to see a last-minute change of position that would ultimately produce an outcome detrimental to Europe’s collective interest.

From this perspective, Ceuta is an instance of a familiar pattern. The same mechanism shows up in standardization. And today, despite geopolitical tensions, competition over critical technologies and strategic industry sectors, and the broader challenges facing European standardization, the misalignment is even more visible than before.