The European Commission endorsed the joint toolbox of mitigating measures agreed by EU Member States to address security risks related to the rollout of 5G, the fifth-generation of mobile networks. This follows the European Council's call for a concerted approach to the security of 5G and the ensuing Commission Recommendation of March 2019. Member States have since identified risks and vulnerabilities at national level and published a joint EU risk assessment. Through the toolbox, the Member States are committing to move forward in a joint manner based on an objective assessment of identified risks and proportionate mitigating measures. With its Communication adopted, the Commission is launching relevant actions within its competence and is calling for key measures to be put in place by 30 April 2020.

Technological change is changing the global economy. To continue to prosper, European businesses have to be competitive. In this context, new digital skills are a major priority for the European industry, for it to compete successfully in the global, innovation-based economy. Indeed, the global race for talent requires the European workforce to acquire high-level skills and continuously improve them to boost employability and fuel competitiveness and growth. Unfortunately, in many industries, there are still increasing skills gaps and mismatches related to digital and high-tech key enabling technologies, which reduces their ability to benefit from the opportunities of digitalisation.
Addressing this gap is the objective of recently published EN 16234-1:2019 ‘e-Competence Framework (e-CF) - A common European Framework for ICT Professionals in all sectors - Part 1: Framework’. The standard provides a new framework to categorise e-skills, by referencing a list of 41 competences required in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professional work environment, using a common language for competences, skills and proficiency levels that can be understood across Europe.
The definitions presented in the document are designed to apply to all actors involved in the ICT sector, such as ICT service companies and professionals, managers and human resource (HR) departments, vocational education institutions and training bodies, professional associations, accreditation, validation and assessment bodies, and market analysts and policy makers, providing them with a commonly recognised measure of ICT talent.

oneM2M, the global standards body for the Internet of Things (IoT), has announced that it is working with the IoT Connectivity Alliance (ICA), an open STD alliance initialised by Alibaba Group, Alibaba Cloud, the data intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, and IoT partners, to widen industry collaboration and speed up the development of universal IoT standards.
Under the agreement, the two organisations will work closely together and provide access to each other’s specifications, both in draft and final form. Invitations to each of the forum’s member meetings will also be extended, allowing increased collaboration between oneM2M member companies and ICA members to further advance the development of new industry standards.