Top mobile phone suppliers have backed a move for a standard phone charger
According to Reuters Europeans will be able to use a standard phone charger for their mobile handsets from next year.

Most of the major firms, that is Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments, have signed the agreement according to the European Commission.

The thrust behind this new move is not only to make things easier for consumers but also to save on waste; people will no longer have to throw away their old charger when they get a new phone.
The EU Commission estimates that unwanted phone accessories accounted for thousands of tons of waste in Europe each year.

In Europe the EU Commission is not a body to be messed with and it is good to see them taking the bull by the horns and forcing manufacturers to standardize certain components.