How can IPMA contribute to new PM2 EU commission standard?

The European Union (EU) Commission has recently introduced a new Project Management methodology named PM squared (PM ² ) aiming at establishing a common framework for all EU funded projects. PM ² references specifically IPMA-ICB as individual, team and organizational competences are considered key elements for project and business managers. However, the mere reference to IPMA-ICB competences does not explain the relation of competences to the actual implementation of a project. As such, competences are by- end-large of a rather theoretical or `nice to have' importance to PM ² . In this paper we attempt to investigate the relation of competences to the project life-cycle to demonstrate that application of competences to the various project phases is both of great value and of pronounced significance. In this way IPMA may contribute to PM ² while at the same time the validity and relevance of IPMA-ICB to another standard is further demonstrated.