[yaakov34]

The upcoming USB standard connector is apparently going to adapt and extend most of the nice features of Lightning. There is a nice article on appleinsider about it [1].

I'll bet that the new EU standard adapts that, rather than enshrining some current solution. In fact, the sort-of-non-mandatory previous EU standard (which was micro-USB) was allowed to expire, since they were working on the next one.

As for whether this is possible - yes, it's certainly possible to require compliance with a certain standard as part of product certification for marketing in the EU. To what extent they want to make it mandatory (extra fees, or outright requirement if you want to market in the EU) - we'll see.

[1] http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/12/04/next-gen-usb-conne...

[MBCook]

Except it won't be here for 2+ years and no one has even seen a doodle of what it looks like. Right now, it's basically vaporware.

I do find this odd though. I thought everyone else had standardized on USB-micro because of a previous dictate by the EU. I'm not sure why they're doing it again.

[nolok]

The previous standardisation was based on an agreement, not a law [1]

As for why a law now when it worked without it until now

> "The Common EPS Memorandum of Understanding expired at the end of 2012. The European Commission reported that all of the MoU signatories, "have met their obligations under the MoU," but that most of the signatories declined an EC request to extend the MoU beyond 2012"

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_External_Power_Supply