OASIS, the XML business standards consortium, has increased its support for European members by opening an office in the Netherlands.

The new office will be headed by Pim van der Eijk, formerly of Excelon. Van der Eijk noted the existing strong European participation in OASIS: "OASIS sponsorship includes many of Europe's largest technology companies, such as EADS, Deutsche Post SAP and Software AG, European innovators such as empolis, Itedo, Republica and StreamServe, as well as Europe-based staff of international companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems."

This is a signficant move for the consortium as they seek to consolidate their role as a provider of infrastructure for organizations wishing to build open information standards.