Implementing a system covering all >30 000 characters and mechanisms for displaying ideographic and right-to-left scripts available in Unicode and ISO 10646 can be very expensive, although these features of Unicode are not required for European products. The European standard ENV 1973:1995 specifies therefore a Minimum European Subset (MES) and an Extended European Subset (EES) of ISO 10646-1. The MES has only 926 characters, which allows very cheap implementation but still covers all characters important to most European users. The EES covers all characters used in European scripts, as well as a comprehensive list of symbols used academically, commercially, and scientifically in Europe. For more information about MES and EES, please have a look at