Oracle participates actively in more than 100 standards-setting organizations and more than 300 technical committees. Thousands of Oracle employees are actively engaged in standards or open-source projects. The standards work includes collaboration across global geographies and business units regarding accessibility programs; government-led initiatives developing technical requirements; industry and technology consortia; national, regional, and international standards-setting organizations; open-source development organizations and projects; standardization-related organizations; and standards compliance programs. For more information, see Standards at Oracle.

Standardization is an important tool to enable access to markets, to ensure interoperability, and achieve a global level playing field for the delivery of products and services. Oracle was founded around the implementation of an open standard: SQL. Before Oracle released a product, it was able to participate in developing the SQL standard on a level playing field with established technology companies. SQL became an ANSI standard in 1986 and an ISO standard in 1987.

In addition to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Oracle plays a leading role in many other international standardization organisations including: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Eclipse Foundation (Eclipse), Linux Foundation (LF), Java Community Process (JCP), and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), to name a few. Oracle employees contribute to efforts ranging from Java and Linux to Kubernetes and hold more than 150 leadership positions within these various standardization organizations.

European standardization

European standardization supports the ambition of the European single market by removing internal trade barriers and promoting the free movement of goods and services. This freedom also benefits companies that want to offer their products and services in Europe, such as Oracle. European standardization is considered by the European Commission as a driver of European competitiveness and resilience, ensuring that standards support investments in the green and digital transitions.

Europe has three standardization organizations that have been officially recognized by the European Union and the European Free Trade Association as being responsible for developing and defining standards at a European level. These are the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Oracle’s Machiel Bolhuis participates in several technical committees of these standardization organizations, such as the CEN-CENELEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC) 21 Artificial Intelligence and CEN-CENELEC JTC13 Cybersecurity and Data Protection. He is the convenor of Working Group Cloud & Edge of  CEN-CENELEC JTC 25 – Data management, Dataspaces, Cloud and Edge.  

In January 2023, the High-Level Forum on European Standardisation was established by the European Commission. This forum brings together stakeholders from the EU and EEA countries, European standardization organizations, industry, civil society, and academia, and aims to assist the European Commission in anticipating upcoming standardization priorities and improvements of the European standardization system. Machiel Bolhuis represented the Confederation of European Business (shortened as Business Europe) in the group that supports the forum. He participates in the European Multi-Stakeholder Group on ICT-Standardisation on behalf of the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), which promotes a favorable environment for interoperable ICT solutions.

International harmonization of European standards

Oracle participates in these standards activities because the development of cloud services, like IT products in general, is most efficient when the services are designed for one worldwide market rather than multiple markets – and therefore it makes sense to promote the international harmonization of standards. If specific geographies want to develop their own standards, they should ensure that these so-called “homegrown” standards are aligned with international standards.

The principle of international harmonization of standards is also included in the international Vienna and Frankfurt Agreements. The key objectives of these standardization agreements between CEN, CENELEC, ISO, and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) include prioritizing international standards, avoiding duplication of work, sharing information and resources between the organizations, and increasing the adoption of standards to reduce technical barriers to global trade. Intergovernmental organizations such as the OECD and the WTO pursue similar goals.

International harmonization of European standards is especially relevant for Oracle regarding cybersecurity, cloud computing, healthcare, and AI. For all of these areas, EU regulations are in place such as the Cyber Resilience Act, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the Cybersecurity Act, the Data Act, the European Health Dataspace Regulation, and the AI Act.  

These EU regulations include essential requirements that are transposed into much more detailed technical standards requested by the European Commission. These standards are called European harmonized standards and offer a presumption of conformity, meaning that they can be used by manufacturers and suppliers to comply with the relevant EU regulations. In other words, once international standards are adopted as European harmonized standards, they will provide a presumption of conformity with EU regulations.

Over the last several years, Oracle has reached out to the European Commission and EU Member States to stress the benefits of international harmonized AI standards and to promote the adoption (both in the EU and globally) of international AI standards such as ISO/IEC 42001:2023.

Heather VanCura, Vice President, External Standards and Community Engagement at Oracle, said:

“By contributing ideas and participating in the development of standards, we can advance Oracle products in support of upcoming standards and regulations to provide a more secure Europe. Participating in standards development also helps Oracle meet our customer needs and requirements, ensuring that we deliver safe and secure services.”

International alignment of cloud interoperability and cloud portability standards was one of the key takeaways of the presentation by Machiel Bolhuis at a Public Hearing at the European Parliament about Cloud Computing Services on December 3, 2025.

Examples of international standards that have been adopted or are in the process of being adopted in the EU include:

Additional information about standards for which an Oracle line of business has achieved a third-party attestation or certification can be found at the Oracle Cloud Compliance website. This includes the ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) AI services.

European standards and digital sovereignty

Another relevant standards topic relates to EU digital sovereignty that promotes European values and imposes additional controls and obligations to store data in Europe. Over the last few years, these digital sovereignty requirements have played a significant role in the discussion in the EU regarding the adoption of the European Cloud Cybersecurity Scheme (EUCS) and are expected to influence the ongoing revision of the EU Cybersecurity Act and the Cloud and AI Development Act. Alignment with international standards is also important – for instance, alignment with ISO/IEC TS 10866:2024 – to set a framework and concepts for organizational autonomy and digital sovereignty for cloud computing services and distributed platforms.

Oracle and our European customers share the view that EU digital sovereignty requirements should not unduly restrict US-based technology providers from serving European organizations and consumers. Instead, emphasis should be placed on collaboration with companies like Oracle to deliver services that are designed to comply with the laws and general practices of the EU. In addition to its commercial public cloud regions, Oracle also offers a comprehensive suite of sovereign cloud solutions in Europe for greater choice when it comes to data residency and EU-based operations and support.

Scott Twaddle, Senior Vice President, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Product and Industries, said:

“Our sovereign regions are operated by locally incorporated entities, with personnel based in the markets they serve. It is also why models such as the Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud, the Oracle UK Sovereign Cloud, and OCI in a Dedicated Region exist. They provide the governance required by sectors that cannot afford compromise: healthcare, finance, energy, and the public sector.”

The ongoing evaluation of Regulation 1025/2012 on European standardization, which sets out the rules supporting the EU’s standardization policy, is relevant in this respect. Standards setting should remain an industry-driven activity and not be replaced by more government intervention.   

Conclusion

International harmonization of standards is an important principle that benefits global trade and creates a global level playing field for the delivery of products and services. This principle is also included in international standardization agreements and promoted by intergovernmental organizations. There is a growing ambition from the EU to play a leading role in international standardization. This should not lead to standards fragmentation.

For Oracle, the principle of international standardization is a key priority. We will continue to voice our support to maintain and strengthen this principle to provide our customers with state-of-the-art technology products and services that provide interoperability, choice, and lower costs. EU digital sovereignty requirements should not hamper access of United States-based technology companies to the European market. International harmonization of standards allows Oracle to offer its products and services across the globe, including the sovereign cloud services in Europe.      

For more information, please see the following resources: