As an American i can say that i do not like politicians from any country...mine or others..telling us what to do in certain areas of our lives....like universal cell phone chargers. WHILE I LIKE THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSAL TECHNOLOGY STANDARD LIKE THIS ONE, i do not believe it should be that an out side nation should have any authority in a different nations boundaries. With that said i see no objection in the government setting a technology standard like this one within its own borders. i can see the benefits of a universal standard for cell chargers. Especially here in America. after all with all the models having different chargers it is easy to get confused if you own more than one cell phone like one for work, the kids, hunting, and around the house. However i think i see a problem here that the politicans overlooked. for example: we all know that when cell phones first came out to the public they could only make calls compared to what they do now. so, with all the different batteries for all those different phones, does that mean the politicians in Europe who pass that standard will indirectly say what you can and cannot do with a cell phone? For example: the more features you have the more power you need and the bigger the battery needed to handle that power....bigger chord too maybe? My point is this if it is right to standardize the cell charger (i believe it is) does that mean that battery sizes will have to be standardized which can result in the limiting of the phones capabilities? Let's look at America for an example OK? here we use CDMA GPRS/GSM/EDGE, 800mhz analog band, high speed data, WIFI, GPS, and 1X EVDO. All those radio's are in just a single phone like my Blackberry. except mine doesn't have the WIFI. so, all those independent radios are crammed in one package. Now what if i wanted a different phone? it will have a different battery with different power requirements. My point is this if we standardize the charger as we do need to, will that result in standardizing the batteries to restrict what the consumer will want the future phones to do? if not then we should standardize now. if standardizing the batteries would restrict the power output for multitasking then we should wait until a standard battery...which has more landfil waste than a charger, is standardized. Now that means the standard battery must be capable of increasing power demands for multitasking in future phones and be able to fit any brand,power demand first. Perhaps a standard slim battery capable of being "upgraded" in the future should come first. Let's say we pick a standard size say....36mm long 12.7mm wide and say 6.25mm thick at say..1650miliamps. ok now all phones regardless of dimension have this size battery and power with this universal charger ok? then as technology grows the battery stays the same size with the same charger and contact points, but the power output changes to say 1750miliamps. Then we run into another problem, lets say you have a nokia and i have my blackberry that use the standard battery and charger, if you loan me your battery so i can make a call then it may not work if the power output is different and everything else fits physically. So as technology is ever changing and so are the features SO can we every really have a standard? the chord produces less waste than the battery so we should start with the battery first and address its limitations first. what do you think? battery or charger first? Sounds like the 21st century axiom to the age old question of " Which came first the Chicken or the Egg?" "Which comes first the Charger or the Battery?" as it were.